Aug 10 2018

Transformers “Power of the Primes:” Snarl by Hasbro

It’s been a hard fought battle, folks, but I finally got a full set of the Power of the Primes Dinobots and today I’m opening up the last one, which just happens to be Snarl. I never had his toy as a kid, and since Fansproject snubbed him when it came to their Lost Exo Realm Not-Dinobots, I don’t even have a third party version. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited to pop my Snarl cherry. Eww, that sounded all kinds of wrong.

I don’t have much new to say about the packaging. It looks good, I like that they used the Dino modes as the character art for these figures. I also really dig how the bubble insert has a picture of the toy in his Dino mode right in front of the figure packaged in his robot mode. I’d say that as a character Snarl has been my least favorite of the Dinobots, but that’s not something he should be ashamed of, because somebody had to come in last even in a group of awesome Dinosaur robots! Let’s start with his alt mode…

When I was a kid this was called a Stegosaurus. Have the dinosaur scientists changed this yet? It seems like they’re always telling me the dinosaurs I grew up learning about never existed or they changed the names or some such nonsense. Pfft… Science… am I right? Anyway like all the PotP Dinobots, Snarl has a fantastic alt mode that pays respects to the original toy. And while I think he tends to be the least photogenic of these Dinos, I still think Hasbro did a great job on him. There’s plenty of sculpted detail in his body, from vents and panel lines to various other ports and mechanisms. They even remembered to put the tiny spikes at the end of his stubby tail! It kind of sucks that they decided to stamp copyright bullshit all over the outside of one of his back plates, but whaddya gonna do, eh?

The coloring is also spot on. You get some gray and red plastic making up the bulk of his body, both of which do a nice job of matching the colors on the original toy. He also features clear plastic over gold and silver to mimic that rather distinctive effect that the original Dinobot toys had. OK, I actually don’t remember Snarl showing that off too much, but I like that they included it here to make him match the other figures better. Snarl also includes some matte gold, which isn’t as snazzy as the metallic gold on the original toy, but it looks fine. The deco is rounded out by some black plastic on the side panels and rear legs, and some tampos on his back. He looks a little more patchwork in design than some of the other Dinobots, but I still dig him.

Articulation in Dino mode features basic stuff. The back legs connect to the body with ball joints and have hinges about halfway down. The front legs just rotate at the body. There’s no articulation in Snarl’s jaw, but two of his back spikes can hinge down and have footpegs to allow some Titan or Prime Masters to ride on his back. Cool!

And you just know that I have to bring up the size and how diminutive these Dinobots are, so let’s do it! Here’s a shot of Snarl’s Dino mode next to Chromedome from Titans Return in his Auto mode and I just can’t accept this. I think this mold would have worked fine as a Voyager Class and I really wish Hasbro had gone that route. But I’ve said all this a bunch of times already, so let’s move on to the robot mode…

All of the PotP Deluxe Dinobots have had solid robot modes and Snarl carries on that tradition nicely. The front half of the Dino mode becomes the legs, with the front Dino legs on the sides and the head spit and tucked behind them. I like how the spine bits run up the front of his legs. Snarl advertises his combiner port in the center of his chest, but to be honest it works with the overall look just perfectly. He also features an Autobot insignia stamped in the middle. Easily the most distinctive thing about Snarl’s robot mode is the way his tail splits and arches up behind his head and shoulders like a crescent moon. The deco is largely in keeping with the alt mode deco. I dig the gold forearms and the way the colorful tampos on his Dino back wind up front and center on his robot legs. He also has a few more tampos on either side of his chest.

From the back things aren’t too bad. I’d say the most unsightly thing here are the halves of the Dino head that hang off the backs of his legs, but as far as kibble goes, it’s not awful. I should note that I really dig the proportions on this guy, and that’s been the case for all the Deluxe PotP Dinobots.

The head sculpt is excellent, although I’ll confess to not being all that attached to Snarl’s likeness in the cartoon or comics. He has a very human-looking face, painted with brilliant silver and two neatly painted red eyes. I also dig the horns that come up off his “helmet.” They go well with the spiked crescent behind his head.

One of my gripes about these Dinobots has been their weapons. We all know by now that Grimlock didn’t come with a gun or a sword, which was criminal. As for these Deluxe figures, Hasbro basically sculpted a single gun and a single sword, and gave two of the figures guns and two of them swords. Snarl’s sword is cast in clear plastic, but otherwise it’s the same as the one that came with Swoop. I like the design, but it looks kind of puny in his hand. I’m also not a big fan of the clear plastic. I’d rather they just gave us another red one, or even better painted them both silver. Of course, Snarl also comes with a Prime Armor piece, which I’m going to totally ignore.

Shall I bring up size one more time? Why not. Here he is in robot mode with Chromedome and while his tail crescent actually does make him a bit taller overall, he still looks so undersized to me and even kind of puny. Chromedome looks like he’d have a fair chance taking down Snarl in a fight, and that shouldn’t be the case.

I can’t stress enough how much I love these figures on their own. They really are great little modern updates to the original Dinobots, keeping the iconic aesthetics but adding articulation and play value. Just having them all together on the shelf is making me so happy because I never owned a full set of the original Dinobots, and these guys look amazing together. It’s only when I display them with other Transformers that I get bummed out because of how small they are. I’m not inherently against the idea of Dinobots as a combiner team. It kind of makes sense, but I can’t help but feel sacrifices were made in favor of that gimmick and if Hasbro hadn’t gone that route, maybe we could have had these as Voyager Class figures with Grimlock as a Leader Class. Man, that would have been so cool!  Oh yeah, and in case you’re wondering, I’m not going to be reviewing the combined form of these guys. I just really don’t care enough and I don’t think the end results warrant the effort. It’s possible some day I’ll invest in a Third-Party upgrade kit, and if that’s the case I’ll look at Volcanicus as a means of reviewing the kit, but for now I’m going to leave it at that.

Aug 8 2018

Star Wars Black (The Force Awakens): Admiral Ackbar and First Order Officer by Hasbro

It’s weird to still have Toys R Us exclusives in play, what with the company folding this year. I didn’t get all emotional about TRU closing, because visiting the nearest one was a two-hour round trip and it was so poorly maintained that it was never worth the effort. Obviously, I’d rather they stayed open so people didn’t have to lose their jobs, but what can you do, eh? In any event, a few weeks back, I picked up this TRU Exclusive 2-pack on the cheap from Amazon, and I’m finally getting around to opening it up today. Let’s check out Admiral Ackbar and the First Order Officer!

The figures come in a window box that’s pretty typical of the Star Wars Black Series from the red backdrop behind the tray right down to the monochrome character art. You also get the silver foil TRU Exclusive sticker on the window, which may very well be the last one of these we see here at FFZ. I’ll also note that my box looks like it’s been punted around the backroom a couple of dozen times by disgruntled soon-to-be-ex-TRU employees. But that’s OK, I don’t save these packages and at the price I paid for this set, they could have just wrapped the figures in old newspapers for all I care. Let’s start with mah-boy Ackbar!

It’s kind of weird that we’re getting Ackbar from The Force Awakens before a Return of the Jedi version, but I’m sure that one will be coming down the pike soon enough. In this case we get the Mon Calamari Admiral in his Resistance uniform and while it’s kind of drab compared to the duds he was sporting in Jedi, it’s still a good look for him. His costume consists of a pea-soup colored tunic, which has a sculpted rank or ID badge on the left side of his chest. The plastic garment looks like it’s made to secure behind a sculpted front flap, which spills over his belt, concealing where the belt buckle would be. The rest of the outfit is rounded out with a pair of blue trousers and brown boots. I always thought it was weird that the Mon Calamari have giant fish heads and flipper arms, but normal feet. Indeed, Ackbar’s feet are kind of tiny, but he still stands just fine. There’s some really nice sculpted detail and texturing on his forearms and hands too.

But it’s the head sculpt that really sells this figure, as Hasbro did a beautiful job on him. That probably shouldn’t come as any surprise, because as much as I rag on the mediocrity and poor likenesses of the 6-inch Black Series, they almost always do a fine job on the alien portraits. Ackbar here is certainly no exception. They recaptured Ackbar’s fishy noggin in every little detail. I’m especially impressed by the ribbed area round his lower face and those tendril-like whiskers that hang down from his nose. And as fantastic as the sculpt is, the paintwork elevates it even more. The glossy finish on the red gives him a bit of a wet look and the gradient shades of red make for a pleasingly complex finish. The eyes are also perfect.

And if all that wasn’t enough, Ackbar even features an articulated jaw. I was not expecting this, but what a pleasant surprise! The hinge is really well hidden and I’m happy to say that adding this gimmick doesn’t take away from the head sculpt at all.

I’d like to think Ackbar was some kind of badass action hero in his younger days, but this is older Ackbar and as an Admiral, he doesn’t need to do much besides sit in a chair and bark orders. Still, he has decent articulation if you want to give him something more to do. Rotating hinges in his shoulders, elbows, and wrists allow him to do the standard, arms behind back pose that suits these officer-types so well. The legs are ball jointed in the hips, have double hinges in the knees, swivels in the thighs, and the ankles are both hinged and have lateral rockers. You get a ball joint in the torso, and the neck is ball jointed, but I don’t think there’s a hinge in there. As a matter of fact, I can’t get much movement out of his neck at all.

Ackbar does actually come with a blaster, and I’m always down with that. This one looks like it’s supposed to be an offshoot of the DH-17. I don’t know what happened to Ackbar’s little swagger stick. Maybe he just doesn’t use it anymore. Or maybe the Resistance is more of a rough-and-tumble kind of outfit that requires even the Admirals to be armed. Either way, I really dig the design of this little pistol and while Ackbar doesn’t really have a trigger finger on that flipper hand, he can hold the gun quite well. Alas, there’s nowhere to store it on his person. I would have liked a loop on the back of his belt to tuck it in there, so he could pull it out and repel boarders on the bridge of his Capital Ship. Whatever the case, Ackbar is a fantastic figure, and I would have been perfectly happy getting him as a single boxed figure. And that brings us to the First Order Officer…

Don’t ask me why, but I love getting figures of Imperial, or in this case First Order, Officers. Maybe I have a delusion that someday Hasbro will release an Imperial bridge as a playset and I can populate it with all sorts of top brass. I doubt that’s going to ever happen, but it won’t stop me from snapping up these officers every time I see them. I have no idea what this fellow’s actual rank is, but he’s wearing a sharp-looking uniform that looks like it’s a very dark charcoal in color with shiny black boots. I really love the sculpted tunic on this guy. It has flared shoulders and it’s belted with one of those wide belts with a big slab of belt buckle, which hasn’t changed much from the Imperial days. He has two sets of rods on his chest, which I’ve been told are some kind of security keys, and he has a sculpted band around his forearm with white edges. The outfit is rounded out by a holster on his right side.

For the head sculpt, Hasbro did a pretty decent job giving us Generic Officer Man. I actually think the sculpt itself is actually quite good. He’s got more than a bit of personality in there, from his pouty bottom lip to the little cleft mark in his chin. As usual the very basic paint lets the sculpt down. His eyebrows look extra cartoony and while his eyes are fairly neat and straight, they don’t lend a lot of realism to the portrait. My only other complaint would be that the skin tone is really pale.

Much like Ackbar’s jaw, the First Order Officer also hides a pleasant surprise and that’s his removable cap! Under the cap, he’s just got a buzz cut painted on with no actual sculpted detail on the hair. But that’s fine, because it means the cap fits the head so well that I didn’t even think it was removable. Besides, the military style cut suits him.

The articulation here is identical to what we saw with Ackbar, minus the hinged jaw of course! He can take some solid poses, but like Ackbar, I don’t anticipate these fellows seeing a lot of action, unless their ship gets boarded or Poe makes an attack run and they have to scuttle off to their escape pods.

The First Order Officer comes with a pistol, which fits nicely into his holster, and can be held in either hand. As with a lot of weapons in The Force Awakens, this one is a pretty unique and interesting design.

Originally I was going to pass on this two-pack, because I had no chance of finding it at a Toys R Us and other places online were selling it for around $45 and that was just more than I wanted to spend. I was ultimately able to pick it up on Amazon for $18 and even at that price I found myself really thinking over whether I actually needed it. In the end, I’m really glad I picked it up. It’s definitely worth it for Ackbar alone. He’s a fantastic figure, but the First Order Officer is no slouch either. And yes, I’ll happily buy another Ackbar when Hasbro gets around to doing a Return of the Jedi version!

Aug 6 2018

Marvel Studios “First Ten Years” Ronan by Hasbro

In case you missed it, Hasbro is celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by going back and releasing some figures of characters they missed the first time around. A few weeks back I checked out the Captain America and Crossbones set from Civil War and today I’m turning my attention to Ronan from Guardians of the Galaxy. [Insert polarizing opinion about James Gunn controversy here].

The First Ten Years releases run the gamut from single packs to two-packs, and even some three packs. Whatever the case, they all come in window boxes, which have been re-branded to help them stand out from the regular Marvel Legends releases. The corners are all squared off and you get a new deco and Marvel Studios logo. Back when Hasbro was doing figures for the first Guardians film, I thought omitting Ronan figure was a huge oversight, and I’m extremely happy that Hasbro is rectifying that now. So let’s get this Kree accuser out of the box and check him out.

And wow, what an amazing sculpt this is! Ronan’s Kree battle armor gave the sculptors at Hasbro a rich canvas to work on and they did not disappoint. Every tiny facet of the armor is realized in full detail. His coat is sculpted as part of the torso and extends down past the waist as a separate soft plastic piece, which hangs around the legs, and it’s all pretty convincing as one garment, save for the cut for the waist swivel. The coat features a grid of segmented armor pieces, almost like scales, which forms a strip running straight down to between his legs. In other areas, some of the armor plates have cool vein-like wrinkles sculpted into them, suggestive of some kind of weird alien forging process.

I really dig the super-fine texturing showing in the lower part of the coat, also seen on some of the leg panels. It looks like some kind of micro-chain armor. There’s also some very fine ribbing in the joints around his underarms. Two strips hang down his back with, like two thin capes, each with an intricate pattern, like a techno-snakeskin. While the coloring here is fairly drab, you do get a nice mix of dark gray metal with some silver, as well as swipes of red forming a pattern on his chest that looks like war paint. Obviously, the MCU figures give Hasbro a lot more to work with when it comes to detail, and I think Ronan here may be one of their most intricate sculpts yet. Pair that with the excellent coloring and this is quite simply an amazing looking figure.

The portrait is no slouch either. Not only is this a solid likeness, but the glossy paint they used for his eyes give him a slight spark of life that I don’t recall ever seeing in a figure in this scale before. He does have some blue veins painted in on his face, which I don’t remember seeing on him in the film, and also the black warpaint around his eyes and mouth. And just in case you thought this review was going to be nothing but me gushing, here’s where we get into some problems…

The soft plastic hood is permanently attached to the head and so is the shoulder armor. Yup, when you turn Ronan’s head, his shoulders turn with it, and this is a terrible design. It’s not too bad if you just tweak his neck articulation, but if you want any significant amount of head turn, it just looks so awkward. I get it, the design features the hood running under the shoulder plates, but here’s where I would have been OK with some creative license on Hasbro’s part. They should have attached the shoulders to the torso via soft plastic connectors and just shaved a little bit off the hood. As things stand, his neck articulation is useless unless you want his shoulder armor levitating in mid air. What a shame.

As long as we’re on the subject of articulation, let’s run down the points. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels in the thighs. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The torso features an ab-crunch hinge and a swivel in the waist, and lastly the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. It all sounds fine on paper, but in reality there are a few issues. . First off, the ab-crunch hinge on my figure is extremely loose. It will hold most positions, but it feels all floppy. Second, the lower half of his armor coat does inhibit the leg movement quite a bit. And finally, those shoulders don’t work well with his arms raised over his head. As great as this figure looks, I can’t say he’s all that much fun to play with. I was struggling just to come up with different poses for pictures.

Of course, Ronan comes with his hammer and it’s a decent enough accessory. It’s cast in gray plastic and there’s some nice swirly effects in the head. The shaft even has some sculpted detail. It even has the glowing purple Infinity Stone centered in its head. Ronan’s hands are sculpted so that he can hold it in either hand, or both.

I was terribly excited to get this figure in hand and even as I was checking him out in the box, I thought he couldn’t be anything else but a slam-dunk. And if I just planned on posing him on my shelf standing with his hammer by his side, then I suppose he turned out pretty great. But the moment I got him in hand and started fiddling about with him, the pangs of disappointment began to build. The design choices here definitely favor display over play, and I suppose that’s fine for a lot of collectors out there, but I like to get a little more out of these little plastic people, and so this release left me a little cold. Hopefully I’ll have better luck next week, as I keep the First Ten Years train rolling along with a review of another of these new Marvel Studios releases.

Aug 3 2018

Transformers “Power of the Primes” Sludge by Hasbro

If you follow me on Twitter, then you know how hard it has been to find me some Power of the Primes toys. Indeed, the poor distribution in my area and the scalper prices I’ve been seeing online played a big part in me justifying a roll back to three reviews a week and killing off Transformers Thursday. Thankfully I managed to bust that log jam and pick up the remaining Dinobots as well as the rest of the Terrorcons. And while I’m not about to bring back Transformers Thursday, I’d say it’s a safe bet that you’ll be seeing Transformers reviews dominating Fridays for the next month or so. So, hooray for more Transformers reviews! I’m really excited to get to the Terrorcons, but I feel like I should take care of unfinished business with the Dinobots first, so today I’m opening up Sludge.

And here’s the in-packaged shot, showing off some pretty rad character art. I like the fact that they’ve been using the Dino Modes for the card art, even though the figure comes packaged in his robot mode. It also makes me happy that the Copyright Gods allowed Sludge to keep his name, unlike poor Slag… I mean, Slug. I’ve yet to see these guys in the wild and for the longest time they were selling for around $35 at my usual online sources, but just last week Amazon dropped them to regular retail and I jumped on them. Let’s start with Sludge’s alt mode…

So, I don’t even know what’s going on in the world of dinosaur taxonomy these days, but back when I was a kid this was called a Brontosaurus and since we all know dinosaurs are an invention of The Illuminati anyway, I’m sticking with that name. And he’s a pretty great looking little dinosaur. Hasbro went nuts with the sculpting on these Dinos, giving them all sorts of panel lines and and little vents. Sludge also has some open panels on his back plates that allows you to see into his inner workings, which is kind of neat. He also has some peg holes on the sides, just in case you want to weaponize him. Hasbro even slapped some stickers on him to recreate the circuitry behind the vents on his back.

I really dig the way Hasbro managed to recapture the deco of the original toys by using clear plastic over gold for part of the head. The tail and back legs are also clear with what looks to be silver painted in from the inside to create a similar effect, along with some gold circling the joint. The gray and red plastic looks pretty close to the original toy too. Throw in some black and gold paint, and you’ve got a deco that does the old G1 release proud.

The articulation is serviceable. The front legs are ball jointed where they meet the body, have hinges in the knees and swivels halfway between. The back legs only rotate at the body and there’s no tail articulation at all. The jaw will open a bit, and there’s a swivel at the neck, which is there for transformation purposes, but it can be used to make Sludge tilt his head from side to side. So far so good, but then we get to size…

All in all, if I were looking at this alt mode in a vacuum, I’d have very little nitpicks, but I keep coming back to how ridiculously small these guys are, even for Deluxe Classes. I’ve been a Transformers collector almost all my life and I’m willing to overlook a lot of scale issues, but it’s hard for me to overlook this one. Just check him out next to Generations Wheeljack. As Grimlock might say, “Dino not same size as car! Why Dino same size as car?” Actually, Sludge looks a little smaller than Wheeljack’s auto mode. In a perfect world, I think modern Dinobots should be Leader Class, but I would have happily accepted Voyager Class. These guys are supposed to be big and imposing, but here he just looks puny and pathetic. Oh well. Let’s transform him and check out his robot mode.

There’s nothing too complicated going on with the transformation here and the resulting bot is pretty damn good. The dino hind legs are a little kibbly on his lower legs, but I do like how the two halves of the tail fold to the back and serve as additional heel spurs. I think the biggest departure here from the Sludge design I’m used to seeing is the way the wings are lower down on his torso and not up over his shoulders. It’s not a big deal to me, and you can actually just swing those all the way back if you want to give him a cleaner look from the front. It’s worth noting that Sludge’s combiner port lands on his back, giving him a clean and distinctive torso design.

He’s not quite as tidy in the back, but there’s nothing here that’s too terrible. The dino neck and head hang down his back, forming a pretty copious backpack, but that was something I expected. The deco in robot mode is more or less the same as in his alt mode. There’s more black and red showing and I still think all the colors look great. It’s hard to imagine a Deluxe sized update to Sludge turning out better than this guy.

The head sculpt is quite solid too. Sludge always had a sad and derpy look to me, and this expression here carries that pretty nicely. The paint used for the face and eyes looks great. Here you can also make out the tiny Autobot insignia printed on his chest. Much like the alt mode, I’ve got no major  complaints with the robot mode, until we get to that ugly issue of size and scaling.

Here’s a size comparison with Generations Wheeljack in robot mode and this just doesn’t work for me at all. Wheeljack looks like he could probably take Sludge in a fight and that’s not right. Oh yeah, and I forgot to turn his forearms around in this photo… my bad.

Sludge comes with two accessories, a gun and his Prime Armor piece. You should know by now that I’m not going to waste any time on the Prime Armor piece, other than to say it looks like the same one we got with Swoop and Slug. The gun is also recycled and is the exact same one that came with Slug. I wouldn’t mind so much if Hasbro had given us guns with all of the Dinobots. I mean, come on, Hasbro. If you’re saving money packing in the same gun, just go ahead and arm all of them. On the plus side, I do really dig how Sludge can hold the gun with both hands.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, my feelings about Sludge are the same ones I had with Slug. He’s features a great sculpt, fantastic coloring, and has excellent robot and alt modes, but in the end he’s too small to interact with my other Transformers. Maybe I can have them fight Combiner Wars Devastator, but that’s about it. As an isolated team, I think the PotP versions of the first three Dinobots look great together, but I just can’t get past the scaling issues. Only Swoop escapes this problem, because I can get behind him being a little smaller. The saddest thing is that I think these molds are detailed enough where they could have worked as Voyager Class figures. Has anyone done up-scaled KO versions of these? Because that needs to happen. Next week, I’ll wrap up my look at these guys with Snarl!

Aug 1 2018

Crash Bandicoot by NECA

Do you remember the Great Mascot Wars of the 90’s? After SEGA’s Sonic The Hedgehog arrived on the scene to challenge Mario it seemed like every game publisher out there was hell bent on developing a new animal mascot with The ‘Tude©. A few of these turned out OK, most were terrible, but from the ashes a new champion was born. In 1996 developer Naughty Dog gave us Crash Bandicoot, which was published by Sony and soon became a mascot for the Sony PlayStation until eventually flying the coop and going multi-platform. I’m glad that he’s on multiple platforms now, I’m playing N-Sane Trilogy on my Nintendo Switch and enjoying it every bit as much as the originals, but if my interactions with idiots on Twitter are any indication, there are a lot of younger folks out there that aren’t even aware that Crash was such an important poster child for the PlayStation. Kinda sad.

And with his original three games now rebuilt from the ground up, along comes NECA to deliver some toys! This Crash figure is the first in a number of offerings NECA has revealed. Also recently shown off at  SDCC were Crash with a jetpack and Crash with a hoverboard. But the first to arrive on the scene is plain old Crash. He comes in a sealed blister card, which isn’t collector friendly, but does offer up a nice whiff of plastic fumes when you break the seal. The packaging is colorful and there’s even a fun surprise folded up inside the insert. Let’s break this Bandicoot out and have a look!

Straight away, I’ve got to commend NECA on the sculpt. They really did a great job capturing Crash’s overall look and personality. A lot of the Mascots with Attitude came across as smug jerks to me, even Sonic, but I never got that feeling from Crash. OK, I mean the look he gives you when he’s about to mount the boar in Hog Wild is a little creepy, but overall I think this Bandicoot is a good guy and that really comes across in this figure. I think one of my favorite things here is the way they sculpted the fur, rather than just leaving him smooth. It definitely gets the point across that this figure is based more on the remake than the original games, but all in all I think it just makes for a better looking figure. The shorts are smooth with a sculpted waist tie, you can see his little white socks peaking out from the tops of his enormous sneakers, and the sneakers themselves are textured and have sculpted laces. His outfit is completed by a pair of finger-less gloves, complete with cut-outs on the backs of his hands, and sculpted stitching! This character has become so surprisingly iconic to me and this figure delivers on every bit of it.

Another thing that really stands out here is the coloring. Crash’s fur is comprised of multiple shades of orange from the bright yellow parts on his chest and and elbows to the darker shades on his shoulders and around his face. I can swear I remember reading an article in an old video game magazine saying something about how developers liked to use orange in their games because it looked particularly vibrant. True or not, it certainly looks great here in plastic. The blues of the pants have a nice glossy sheen to them and the paint lines are all neat and crisp, even on the shoe laces.

As far as the head goes, NECA totally nailed it. This portrait is all about the personality, and thanks to the ball jointed eyebrows, you can get some different expressions out of him. I want to say Palisades did this first with their Muppets line, but whatever the case it’s a really brilliant idea. I’ve definitely had some fun with it, and it’s just so cool to mess around with. His miss-matched pupils give him that slightly crazy look and his smile shows the delight and wonderment of a Bandicoot on a great adventure. Even his spiky fur mohawk looks great.

In addition to those eyebrows, Crash sports a decent amount of articulation throughout the rest of his body. NECA does love their rotating hinges, and here you get them in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, and knees. There’s a ball joint in the chest and neck, and ball joints in the hips as well.

 

As for accessories, Crash comes with a cardboard box that’s tucked between the folded inserts of the packaging. It’s pretty durable, significantly better than the ones that Jakks included with their World of Nintendo figures, and infinitely better than the tiny ones Hasbro included with their 4-inch Indiana Jones line. It tabs together well and it’s sturdy enough to hold Crash’s significant weight.

But… and here’s where the nitpicking begins, while the figure itself is fantastic, the package feels light on the accessories. Sure, Crash himself uses a lot of plastic, and I’m not expecting a bunch of stuff. It’s not the lack of a quantity of items, but rather the lack of a couple of key items. I really expected to get Aku Aku or even a foam peach and the lack of either really stings. With the follow up Crash variants being packed with jetpacks and hoverboards, this vanilla Crash release seemed like the best opportunity to get us those things. And I just don’t see how you can do a Crash Bandicoot figure without Aku Aku. If I were a betting man, I’d say they plan on releasing Aku Aku with Coco as an extra incentive for collectors to buy her. If that’s the case, I’m OK with it, because quite frankly I plan on being All-In on this line.

And the last thing I want to do is end this review on a negative, because I’m absolutely in love with this figure. The colors and sculpt come together in a way here that approaches Raziel, my favorite NECA video game figure of all time. But most of all, this release allows me to let go of one of my long-time holy grails, and that’s Resaurus’ Crash figures. For those that don’t remember, Resaurus was a toy company that cut their teeth on some great video game licenses like Duke Nukem, Sonic the Hedgehog, Quake, and Street Fighter. Their figures were great, but didn’t always age well, and most of mine wound up breaking. Resaurus’ Crash figures have become rather expensive on the secondary market, and while I look out for them, I never pulled the trigger. And now I don’t have to. My only hope is that NECA gets to a decent number of other characters. At the very least I’d love to get me Neo Cortex, Coco, Nitro Brio, and Tawna!

Jul 30 2018

Marvel Legends (Sasquatch Wave): X-23 by Hasbro

Welcome to another Marvel Monday! I’m used to posting these early in the morning right before I go to work, but now I’m posting them early in the morning right after getting home from work. Yeah, in case you missed the earlier disclaimer, I’ll be working nights on a project that will last until sometime in October and while I hope this will not effect content here, it’s certainly possible. But for now the show must go on and today the Wheel of Legends landed on the Sasquatch Wave for the second week in a row. Let’s check out Laura Kinney… X-23!!!

I have to say, this wave has been pretty great. In fact, there’s only one figure in this assortment that I wasn’t excited to get and I’m saving him for last. Oh, I mean… the totally random Wheel of Legends just hasn’t landed on him yet. Phew. Nice save on my part. Anyway, X-23 comes in a Deadpool branded package, which is a bit odd. In the past, Hasbro has changed up the branding on themed waves, and I’m not sure why they didn’t do that here, but I’m just going to throw the package out so it really doesn’t matter to me. A quick glance tells us there’s nothing in the way of accessories, but to make up for that, she does come with the giant Sasquatch torso Build-A-Figure part.

And here’s X-23 out of the package and the first thing I’ll say is how genuinely surprised I am that they didn’t go for Ms. Kinney in her Wolverine costume. Not that I’m complaining. I’m not a fan of that book, or Marvel’s bizarre insistence on replacing established characters. I am, however, a fan of her in the costume, so I wouldn’t mind getting that figure down the road. But, for now, we get X-23 in her X-Force Spec Ops outfit, which isn’t that far removed from what she’d been wearing before taking on the blue and yellow spandex. This is also fairly similar in design to the 4-inch figure we got a while back in the 2011 Marvel Universe line.

The bulk of the outfit is achieved through paint alone, although she does have some nice sculpted detail on her tall boots, including the straps that run up the sides, each with its own silver painted buckles. She also has a separately sculpted belt with the X-emblem on the buckle. The crop top is synonymous with several of her modern looks, but the gray bits really call out the X-Force look. The paint lines are overall pretty clean with a few minor flubs here and there. Unfortunately, there is a rather unsightly seam running up the side of her exposed midriff. Too bad they couldn’t have concealed this better.

I really dig this head sculpt a lot. It feels maybe a tad big for the body, but that might be because of the copious blowing hair. I’m not always a fan of the windblown look with sculpted hair, but I do like it here and I haven’t found too many poses where it gets in the way or looks out of place. The expression is pure rage with her teeth gritted as if she’s about to plunge her claws into someone, and I’m certainly cool with that. I will admit, I’m not a huge fan of the grey stripe on her mask, but that’s more an issue I have with the costume design than with the actual figure. All in all, really nice work here.

As with previous Wolverine figures, X-23’s claws are simply slotted into her hands, so they can be removed and added to allow for both display options. They’re pretty stiff and not too bendy, which is always a good thing. But what about her other claws?

Yeah, clearly the most obvious misstep here is that she doesn’t have her foot claws. I’m only mentioning it now, but it was the first thing I noticed when I took her out of the package. I hadn’t seen any reviews of this figure and since her feet are obscured by the Deadpool logo, I honestly expected them to be there. Even after I got her out of the package, I was looking in the tray to see if they had fallen out, but nope… she just doesn’t have them. Now, I’m not up on my X-23 funnybooks, so maybe there’s a reason for this in the official canon, but my guess is that Hasbro just didn’t include them on the figure for some inexplicable reason.

The articulation here is pretty good, but I have a few minor complaints. The arms feature those weird rotating shoulder hinges, which just don’t look all that natural. Otherwise, you have the regular rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists. The legs have ball jointed hips, swivels in the thighs and at the tops of the boots, and double hinges in the knees. The ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint under the chest and the neck has both a hinge and ball joint. Ms. Kinney is generally a pretty agile character, so the articulation here isn’t quite up to the task of all I’d like her to be able to do, but as far as the Legends line goes, it’s acceptable.

And so, X-23 takes her place as another really solid figure in a really solid assortment. I wouldn’t mind getting a few repaints out of this one, maybe Hasbro can whip up a striped top variant to take another $20 away from me. Whatever the case, I was happy to see them dig a little deeper here rather than go with a current comic that I’m just not into at all. Then again, I’m sure I’m going to buy the Laura Kinney Wolverine whenever they get around to it anyway. And that leaves just one more figure in this wave before I can build Sasquatch. But next week, I’ll be tossing randomness to the wind and taking a look at one of the Marvel Studio: First Ten Years figures!

Jul 27 2018

Star Wars Black: Grand Moff Tarkin by Hasbro

The 6-inch Black Series is perpetually in danger of getting dropped by your’s truly. It seems like for every great figure, there are a handful of mediocre ones. It also seems like Hasbro continually squanders the opportunity to make use of the larger scale and produce figures that are genuinely better than what could be done in the 4-inch scale. But just as I’m about ready to call it quits, Hasbro goes and teases a new release that gets me all hot and bothered again. And yep, Tarkin is just that kind of figure. I pre-ordered him, which is something I rarely ever do with this line, and it felt like it took forever for him to finally arrive.

I’ve got nothing new to say about the packaging, so let me gush over Peter Cushing for a bit. There’s no doubt Star Wars introduced him to me, but as I got a little older, I would discover the films of his horror career and I became smitten with him as an actor. Darth Vader may have had the spotlight in merchandising, but let’s not forget that Tarken was holding his leash, making him one of the greatest bad asses of the entire Original Trilogy. When he featured prominently (and posthumously) in Rogue One, I was so delighted, it was easy for me to look past the blemishes in the CG. Yup, I really dig him and here he is in all his 6-inch action figure glory. Hopefully there isn’t any foul stench!

OK, I’ll concede that this is not the most exciting action figure around. It’s an old man in a uniform. Indeed, for as much as I adore having this figure in my collection, I have surprisingly little that I can actually say about it. The uniform has some nice texturing and stitch lines. I was expecting heavy reuse from the Director Krennic figure, and there’s definitely some here. The legs appear to be the same, as do the arms, albeit with new hands. The tunic looks like a re-sculpt, as there’s some added wrinkles to the area below the belt, among other minor differences. The belts are different too, and of course Krennic wears a blaster, whereas Tarkin does not.

The head sculpt is pretty solid, but I will admit that it looks better in hand than it does in photos. I also think it loses a little something when viewed from straight on, but give that head a little quarter turn and I think it’s a pretty impressive likeness. The paint is also much improved over what we’ve been seeing in this line in the past. In terms of human portraits, I’d say this is definitely a step in the right direction. On the downside, the tunic area on my figure has some paint inconsistencies with some splotches that make it look perpetually wet in some areas. It’s not a disaster, but it is noticeable enough that I may pick up a second Tarkin if I can find him for a good price.

The articulation here is pretty standard stuff for the Black Series. You get rotating hinges in his shoulders, elbows, wrists, and hips. He’s got double hinges in his knees, and his ankles have hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint in his waist and both a hinge and ball joint in his neck. The joints feel good and all have a fairly decent range of motion. But hey, this is Tarkin. You pretty much just need him to stand somewhere and gesture while he commands the people around him. Conveniently, Hasbro used a gun holding right hand for him, and while he doesn’t need it to hold a gun, the trigger finger works nicely for pointing. Normally, I would have liked it if Hasbro threw in a gun, but instead we got something a lot cooler.

Yup, Tarkin comes with the Interrogation Droid! This black plastic ball of pain comes mounted on a clear flight stand with a ball joint so you can adjust it’s positioning a bit. It features a great amount of sculpted detail and some silver and red paint apps. It also has its various instruments of torture deployed, including a rather chunky version of the syringe it was going to use on Princess Leia. As far as accessories go, this one is fantastic!

It’s possible not everyone is going to be as excited to get Tarkin as I am. There’s a fair amount of reuse and resculpt here, he’s a simple design, and he doesn’t exactly put the action in action figure. But as much as I love the character and the actor, I’d say this one was pretty high on my 6-inch Black Series Want List. Hasbro did a nice job on him and even stepped up the game by bundling him with the Interrogation Droid, and all in all he was well worth the wait. And yeah, I’m also pretty excited about the releases of General Veers and Admiral Piet. I’ll take as many top Imperial brass as I can get!

Jul 25 2018

Variable Action Hero (One Piece): Summer Vacation Nami by MegaHouse

Some of you may be wondering if I’m ever bringing back Anime Saturday and I think today’s review should answer that question. I’ve cut down the number of reviews each week to help me cope with more work and other things and so rather then be inconsistent with that extra Saturday piece of content and stress me out trying to do it, I’ve decided to just roll those reviews into the regular week rotation. But since making this decision, the Figmas and the Figuarts and the Prize Figures have really been piling up, so hopefully I’ll be able to start knocking out reviews of some of this stuff more regularly. And so, without further ado… “Come aboard and bring all your hopes and dreams…”

ONE PIECE!!! Oh yeah! Whenever I’m feeling stressed or depressed or just need something to boost my spirits, pouring a tall glass of Jameson and tossing in a One Piece DVD is like wrapping myself in a warm blanket. I’ve already reviewed two One Piece figures from the Variable Action Hero line, and yes one of those was Nami! This new release is dubbed Summer Vacation Nami, which means she’s wearing even less, so how could I resist double dipping? I’m also bumping her to the head of line with Roronoa Zoro still waiting for his turn. Sorry, bud. I’ll get to you eventually. If you’re unfamiliar with these VAH figures, they’re sort of like larger scale Figma or SH Figuarts, and while they’re good, they’re not always quite as good as those other figures. Nami comes in a colorfully illustrated window box, which does a good job matching up with the packages of the other Straw Hat Pirates in this line. Let’s get her out and have a look!

Nami is no stranger to skimpy bikini tops, but now she’s cast off her jeans for a skimpy bikini bottom as well, and I ain’t complaining. The bikini is turquoise with white vertical stripes, and there’s a big blue “3” printed on the right side of her ample chest. Apart from the Log Pose and golden bangle on her left wrist she’s not wearing anything else so from the neck down there isn’t a lot of sculpted detail here beyond her fingernails and toenails. The skin tone is warm and smooth and features some nice shadowing around the joints and, um… other areas. Naturally she has her trademark tattoo printed in blue on her left bicep.

There are two different front hair pieces to choose from. One is regular and one comes with her sunglasses attached. Seeing as how this is Summer Vacation Nami, I don’t see why you would want to go without the sunglasses, but the option is still there if you want it. The previous VAH Nami came with four different swap-out faces, whereas this one comes with five. You get regular smiling face, somewhat sinister smiling face, two different winking faces, and angry shouty face. Swapping faces is as easy as on Figmas or Figuarts. You just remove the front hair piece pull off one face and slap on another.

You also get a nice selection of different hands, all of which seem to be recycled from the previous Nami. These range from relaxed hands, karate chop hands, and fists to more expressive options like the “OK” gesture and a pointing finger. If you’ve had experience with Figmas or Figuarts, you have a good idea about the kind of articulation we’re dealing with here. These figures never feel as poseable as their smaller rivals, but there’s still plenty of fun to be had here. On the downside, I absolutely hate the design of the hip joints. They’re ball jointed on a dogbone style piece and they constantly want to pop out and be all loosey-goosey when I’m trying to pose her. They also have a habit of exposing a little too much of the joint with some poses. I don’t know what happened here, but this was never a problem with my other VAH Nami.

 

In addition to all the faces and hands, Nami comes with what every girl needs on her Summer Vacation: An inner-tube to float around in. This one has purple stripes and the word SEXY printed across the side, as if we needed to be told. The tube is made out of plastic, but it’s molded to look pretty convincing as an inflatable flotation device. There’s even a peg hole in the side so that it will work with a Tamiashii Stand.

I like this figure a lot, although it’s getting a little tough for me to justify these because of the cost. Nami set me back $90 when I pre-ordered her. It’s definitely a premium for what you’re getting, but it beats missing out and paying even more later on through the secondary market. Sure the Figmas and Figuarts are smaller, but I still feel like I’m getting more for my money with those figures in the $60 price range. I’d also much prefer getting these characters in a scale that would fit my other anime figures. In other words, if Figma or Figuarts were doing these characters, I’d be all over them, but apart from my one lone Figuarts Nami, that’s not an option, so I have to go with Variable Action Heroes for now.

Jul 23 2018

Marvel Legends (Sasquatch Wave): X-Force Deadpool by Hasbro

Before I get into Marvel Monday, I need to throw out the possibility of interruptions in my usual posts starting next week. I’m starting a mammoth project at work, which is going to be ongoing through to October, and I’m not sure yet if/how it will effect the time I have to spend on this blog. I do know that I will keep Marvel Mondays going whatever the cost, but there’s a possibility that I might have to drop to just two reviews a week if things get dicey. Hopefully that won’t happen, but I just wanted to give everyone a heads up in case it does. And with that out of the way… I have spun the Wheel of Legends and today’s figure is… X-Force Deadpool!

This is Wade’s second appearance in this wave and I reviewed the red-suited version of The Merc With A Mouth back in May. I also lamented how that figure was wanting for accessories. Well, that’s not the case here. Not only does this one come with Sasquatch’s noggin, but he also comes with a little arsenal of weapons. And not only is Hasbro stuffing two Deadpools in one wave here, but this one is also a double dip, because we got the first X-Force Deadpool in the modern Legends line way back in 2012. Not that I’m complaining because, quite frankly, that first one has not aged well. But is this one just a cash-grab repaint?

Um, sort of? Most of the buck is recycled from the modern Deadpool we got back in the Juggernaut Wave and repainted into the black and gray X-Force suit. The paint lines are sharp and the colors look great. The big differences in the body consist of the removal of the armor pieces from his fore arms and lower legs, and a new pair of feet. The articulation here is identical, so I won’t run through all that again, but keep in mind this one does not have the shoulder crunches like the Classic Deadpool from this wave.

Almost all his add-on gear is different. The belt appears to be a new sculpt, but the brace of pouches and holster on his right leg are reused from the Juggernaut Wave Deadpool. I like that the tiny belt buckle features the “X” symbol instead of his trademark Deadpool insignia. There’s some nice texturing and detail on the pouches and the individual button snaps and buckles are painted silver. It really sets the thigh piece apart from its previous appearance. The ankle cuffs do appear to be the same as the ones on the other Deadpool in this wave and this figure has an added collar piece around his neck.

The other big difference between this guy and Redpool from this wave is his shoulder rig. Gone is the cross strap, and now his scabbards are held on by a pair of shoulder straps.The scabbards run parallel to each other instead of crisscrossing. The scabbards are also longer to accommodate his longer katanas, which I’ll get to in a bit. That’s not to say the rig is new, it’s actually another piece that’s recycled from Juggernaut Wave Deadpool and I’m fine with that.

Also borrowed from Juggsy Deadpool is the headsculpt, which features the stitch lines that run down the sides of his face. There’s a nice hint of his facial features under the mask and it has the little sculpted point drooping on the back. And while this version doesn’t come with an unmasked head, you can use the one that came with Juggsy Deadpool as it fits just fine. *Taco not included. Let’s move on to accessories.

It’s nice that Deadpool comes with some guns this time, but I’m not really a fan of what we got. The rifle design is the same one that was included with Juggsy Deadpool and it’s pretty boring. It did get some coloring this time, but the odd choice of black and blue coloring makes it even more bizarre. It’s also cast in some super bendy plastic, which feels cheap.

The pistol is a decent enough sculpt, but it’s colored in blue with a red plug on the barrel making it look like a toy. I’m not too far behind in my Deadpool reading, but if the toyish looking gun is a comic reference, I don’t get it. Why not just cast it in gray or black plastic?

I am, however, happy to see the shorter straight swords from Classic Deadpool gone and replaced by the longer katanas that we got with Juggsy Deadpool. Sure, Hasbro has gotten some mileage out of these, but why not? They’re great swords. Some silver paint on the blades would have made them even better, but the gray plastic looks OK. I should note that Deadpool’s right hand is sculpted for the purpose of holding his guns, so that grip is pretty loose for the swords. He can hold it at certain angles, but it’s not uncommon for the sword to drop out of his hand.

As a mishmash of the last two Deadpool releases, X-Force Deadpool doesn’t really offer any new surprises, but I’m not going to hold it against him. Here’s a case where the recycling works well and creates a figure that has rendered my previous X-Force Wade totally obsolete. Sure, I would have liked some better choices in his firearms, but I guess they’re better than nothing, which is what we got last time. In the end, I think this is a fantastic figure and well worthy of joining my growing Deadpool-themed Legends shelf.

Jul 20 2018

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2: Yondu Udonta 1:6 Scale Figure by Hot Toys

The only real gripes I had with Hot Toys over their Guardians of the Galaxy line (besides how long it took to get Drax) was the conspicuous absence of both Yondu and Nebula. I get it that Hot Toys has to be careful when banking on releasing second or third tier characters, but then this is also the company that released a Stormtrooper with a porcelain china pattern. Sure, it was just a repaint and not something where likenesses had to be licensed and sculpted, but my point is they’re willing to take risks. And when Guardians 2 hit and both Yondu and Nebula had even more screen time and much bigger roles, I was sure they’d finally get the Hot Toys treatment. Well, so far I was half right. Yondu arrives based on his appearance in the second film, and it’s a good thing too, because with the way things went in that flick, there wasn’t going to be any more opportunities. But let me get off that topic before I start tearing up.

Behold! The packaging! After some flimsy window boxes covered with even flimsier sleeves, it’s nice to see Hot Toys stepping it up on their packaging. Yondu comes in a shoebox style affair illustrated with the console of The Milano’s tape deck and with a profile shot of Yondu painted on the speaker. The tape door is a window showing Awesome Mix Tape, Vol 2, which is illustrated on the inside insert. It’s a great looking box that shows off a little more thought and craft in the presentation then I feel like we’ve been getting from Hot Toys lately. Under the lid and the illustrated insert Yondu comes on a plastic tray surrounded by his many accessories and extras. Apart from clipping off some protective plastic, he’s pretty much ready to go right out of the box, so let’s check him out…

Yondu comes wearing his patchwork Ravager outfit and boy this must have been like a playground for Hot Toys’ talented tailors and craftsmen. There’s so much personality in this wardrobe and I had a great time going over every little detail of it as soon as I got the figure out of the box. The sleeveless trenchcoat has a leather-like texture with various other materials patched in here and there. I particularly like the triangular scale pattern that makes up the back of the shoulders. There are brass eyelets, straps and hooks that hilariously seem to serve no purpose, and lots of little weathered effects, all of which show what a labor of love these figures are to the people who craft them. Thankfully, Yondu’s outfit hasn’t changed much since the first movie, which means this figure fits nicely in with my Hot Toys Guardians line up.

Some additional highlights include the darts lined up on the right shoulder strap, and the Ravager emblem that he wears on the left side of the jacket’s chest. Under the jacket, he has a long sleeved shirt with a fastening front flap that reminds me of some kind of 19th Century Gentlemen’s outfit straight out of The Old West. The garment has an interesting pattern of purple ovoid loops against a red backdrop, which displays some remarkable attention to detail and craftsmanship. The outfit is rounded out by a pair of red, purple, and brown trousers, high boots, and a scarf tied neatly around his neck.

Yondu has a wrist bracer on his right arm, which also houses a removable throwing knife. I don’t remember this even being featured in either of the films, but it’s damn cool that Hot Toys included it as an actual accessory. He also has a couple of left hands that can hold it quite well. Other hands include a couple of fists, relaxed hands, and a right hand intended for holding back the flap of his coat.

At this point, it should go without saying that Hot Toys’ likenesses are almost always on point, and that’s certainly the case here. Michael Rooker has been sculpted by a number of different toy companies over the years, but I’d say this is one of the best portraits I’ve seen. The shade of blue they used for the skin looks just right, and somehow they still manage to make the skin look realistic, despite being such an outlandish color. You get some veins running under the skin, as well as what I think is supposed to be scarring from his time spent as a Kree Battle Slave. Of course, the eyes feature that same eerily lifelike quality that it seems like only Hot Toys can do. I also really dig the realism of the whiskers on his chin, they just look fantastic. Hot Toys went for a fairly neutral expression, which was probably a smart move to allow for a versatility of display options, but this is one figure that I would have loved to see an extra portrait for, either whistling for his arrow or smiling and showing off his rather distinctive teeth! And as we’ll see in a bit, I would have easily traded the Deluxe accessories for an extra Yondu noggin.

And yes, he comes with his fin, which is easily swapped out as both pieces are magnetic and both of them have sculpted and painted circuitry on the inside where it connects to his head. The fin is pretty much the key item for changing Yondu from a first movie appearance to a Vol. 2 appearance. And while I really do love the way the fin looks, chances are I’m going to stick with the look from the first film as it just fits in better with the Guardians on my shelf. Moving on to accessories… well, Yondu may not have a talking car like Zardu Hasselfrau, but he does come with a flying arrow.

Yondu’s belt features a holster for his Yaka Arrow and he actually comes with two: One is just the plain arrow and the other is attached to an effect part, which tabs into two other effect parts to create it’s flying effect. The plastic trail is cast in fairly soft translucent pink plastic, which allows for a little bit of variety to the poses you can do, but it’s mainly intended to fly up from the holster, circle behind his head and pass over the left shoulder. I think the effect is well done, but I also think it would have been cool to get a couple more pieces of it to better mix up the display. Thankfully, Yondu does come with a pair of hands for holding the arrow and that helps support it when it’s hovering over his shoulder. So, what else is in the box?

How about an angry Attacking Baby Groot with stretching arm tendrils? This is a tiny static figure, but oh boy is it a fantastic little sculpt. The detail from the wood grain finish to Groot’s skin to the texturing on his little Ravager outfit. Even the paint apps on the zipper are so crisp and clear and the expression on his little face is perfect. I think it’s great that Hot Toys puts so much effort into such a little extra. The figure comes with a simple black disc stand with pegs for the feet, and it’s pretty essential because he will not stand on his own. And that’s it for the accessories included with the regular edition of the figure, which just leaves the extra goodies included with The Deluxe version. And DX Yondu does indeed come with some cool extras, but they’re all solid examples of what I would consider non-essentials, especially if you don’t own the Rocket figure from the second movie, because one (perhaps you could argue two) of these accessories are intended for him.

First off, we have the Groot cage. Yes, you can put the Baby Groot that came with Yondu in here, but because he’s attacking with his arms it looks a little odd. Clearly, this cage was intended for the Baby Groot that came with Rocket. Although that one is also wearing the Ravager outfit, which is a little out of context from the scene in the movie. Either way, it’s kind of a dick move to switch up the Baby Groots like that, since there has got to be other collectors out there like me who are happy sticking with their Rocket from the first movie. It feels like a strategy designed to make me want the other Rocket and indeed Sideshow even cross-sells Vol. 2 Rocket as a companion piece to Yondu on their website. Ah, but you won’t get me that easily, Hot Toys. I’ll just topple the cage on its side with an open door and have Baby Groot standing in front of it, like he’s just escaped and is out for blood! Of course there’s no beating around the bush with the next accessory… it’s straight up an accessory for Rocket.

It’s Rocket’s blaster and this one I really do have to call bullshit on because it has nothing to do with Yondu. Plus, with how small Rocket is, there’s no reason Hot Toys couldn’t have included this with Vol. 2 Rocket. I get that Yondu and Rocket were paired up for part of the movie, but including this piece with Yondu just feels wrong. That’s not to say I mind getting it, because it works just fine with my Rocket from the first movie. It’s a beautiful little weapon too, but I prefer the far more distinctive design of his rifle from the first flick. So, two DX accessories both designed to go with Rocket. Are any of the DX extras designed for Yondu? Yep, I saved the best for last…

The Aero Rig! This chest harness is made up of front and back pieces, which attach around the figure. The detail and paintwork on this rig are both exceptional, with a nice metallic silver finish and satin black and copper touches. The jet tubes feature sculpted vents and a little weathering where the flame shoots out. It’s worth noting, however, that the rig is made of extremely fragile plastic. Just getting it apart to put it on the figure was a little scary and getting it apart again to take off was even more so, because you can’t get at the fragile clips on the interior of the shoulder straps. I’d also advise against displaying the figure with it for extended periods because it will probably put some troublesome wrinkles in the jacket. Another cool bonus is it looks like it should have no problem fitting Star-Lord. It might fit Drax too, but I don’t want to mess with his sensitive nipples. It’s not something I’m going to use a lot, but I do like having the option, and Hot Toys put a lot of great work into it.

With Yondu I feel a sense of closure on this journey that started back in 2015 with Star-Lord. I suppose there’s always a chance we might still get a Mantis and Nebula release from Infinity War, and I’d jump on either of those releases, but I still feel content with the lineup I have now. Although part of me is still considering the Rocket and Teen Groot two-pack. Anyway, I jumped on Yondu at Sideshow the moment he went up for pre-order and I’m glad I did, because he went to Wait List pretty quickly and sold out at a lot of other retailers just as fast. Right now he seems to be pushing $300+ on Ebay. But was the extra thirty or so dollars for the Deluxe worth it? Eh. I’m almost always willing to pop the extra money for the Deluxe version, but here’s an example where I would not have minded sticking with the regular release if I had to. Either way, I’m just glad to have the figure because it turned out amazing and it’s every bit as fine a tribute to the character as a full-blown Ravager Funeral.