Tag Archives: hasbro

Dec 16 2024

G. I. JOE Classified: Iron Grenadier by Hasbro

Classified has been dipping into Destro’s private army of Iron Grenadiers, and I started looking at these a few weeks back with the Iron Grenadier BATs. Well, now it’s time to check out the actual Iron Grenadier Troops! Last time I mentioned how this faction came out after I had already moved on from buying GI JOE figures as a kid, so I didn’t own any of the original RAH figures, but part of the fun of collecting Classified is getting to experience some of these characters and designs for the first time. Granted, as Classified strays into the 90’s, I’ll likely start to opt out more and more, but for now these fellas are right up my alley!

Hasbro has hit peak Classified packaging with these window box designs. You still get some character art on the side, but for the most part the box lets the figure do the talking. And with a line as fantastic as Classified, that really is the best way to go about it. I love the concept of the Iron Grenadiers, as it only makes sense that Destro would have his own private forces for when shit hits the fan or when it’s finally time to depose old Bumper Face, Cobra Commander. As a kid playing with my JOEs, I would often have Cobra Civil War break out between Serpentor backed by the Crimson Guard and Cobra Commander backed by the regular Blue Shirts and Vipers. I can only imagine the fun I could have had with a three-way Civil War, adding Destro into the mix. The poor JOEs probably would have stayed in the collector case.

Out of the package, the Iron Grenadier is looking all sorts of regal. Hasbro has been doing some wonderful extrapolations of RAH figures for this line, but this is one example where they just stole the ball and ran with it. I’m a big fan of elaborate military uniforms reminiscent of the 19th Century and this guy has got it going in spades. The black overcoat with red trimmed lapels and liner, along with the gold buttons looks, parting just below the belt to reveal his gray trousers, but continuing down below the knees at the back. The gold accents extend to the tiny skull belt buckle as well as the fixtures on his baldric that holsters one of his weapons across his back. A second holster provides access to his angled pistol at the small of his back and a sword hangs off his right hip in a black and gold scabbard. This uniform design is simply amazing and Hasbro did a wonderful job realizing it in this scale. Oh and I have to compliment the work they did on the collar and necktie peeking out from the top of the jacket. It looks great!

The head is completely covered giving him an intimidating anonymity. The combination of visor and snout over the nose and mouth gives me more than a hint of Star Wars Biker Scout helmet design. The deco for the face mask continues black, red, gold, and gray color scheme from the rest of the figure. The helmet is removable, although there isn’t much going on under it, and I dig the gold mohawk-like crest at the top.

As snazzy as he may look, a troop builder still needs to have a solid weapon layout and this guy comes fully loaded, even if it is all recycled gear. So much so, that he can’t really carry everything, unless he’s going into the fight with big guns akimbo. Normally, I really expect these figures to be able to carry their own gear, but here I think a bulky backpack with guns hanging off of it would have messed up the regal military vibe they were going for, so I guess I’m OK with it. So let’s start with what he can carry, starting with the sword. I loved this weapon on the Crimson Guard and I love seeing it again, albeit this time with a golden blade. It fits perfectly into the scabbard, which plugs into the socket on his right hip.

The holsters on his back carry the same weapon designs wielded by his boss and I think these are a great pairing to include with him. The large scoped laser pistol has a bit of gold plating on the top of the barrel and it’s just a really neat sci-fi inspired design with some excellent detail in the sculpt. This one is stored angled across the back. Meanwhile, he has the smaller pistol down on the back of his belt.

The two bigger weapons include the double-barreled AR design and the SIG 338-style light machine gun. Both of these have been around a bit, but I most recently remember them paired up with Night Force Shockwave. The AR still has the hinged foregrip, but here it’s cast in red plastic, as are the bipod and ammo box on the machine gun. Thematically the red on these weapons should work, but I think it looks kind of cheap.

All nitpicks aside, these guys turned out great. In a perfect world, I think Hasbro should bundle at least one new weapon or accessory with any non-exclusive figures, but I like that he got the Destro stuff and the rest of what he got is pretty good. I actually dig these fellas more than the IG BATs and that’s saying something because I liked them a lot. I’m really trying to curb my temptations to get more of these. I wound up with three, but I really feel like I should pick up a couple more at some point down the road.

Dec 2 2024

G. I. JOE Classified: Alpine by Hasbro

As I continue to pack things away prior to my move early next year, access to my collection will be shrinking, thus limiting what I’ll be able to pull out for review here. I am trying to spotlight some things before they get packed away, but it won’t be possible to get everything. Classified, however, will be the last part of my collection that I box up, so you’ll likely see an increase in Classified reviews over the next couple of months. And hey, that ain’t a bad thing! And it’s likely that I’ll be missing a midweek review here and there as demands on my time increase. Anyway, the last batch of Classified that I got in was pretty Cobra focused, so let’s switch back to the good guys and take a look at Alpine today!

Once again, I find this current window box design to be peak Classified packaging. It’s pretty compact, looks great, and mostly lets the figure do the talking. I loved Alpine on the Sunbow cartoon and the original RAH figure was released at least a year before I started getting out of toys, so I couldn’t tell you why I never owned this figure as a kid. Honestly, I don’t remember ever even seeing him on the pegs, but chances are there was probably just that one figure competing with him that I wanted more. After all, 85-86 had some really heavy hitters contending for my allowance. But still, considering the living room sofa doubled as a mountain to stage many of my JOE battles, it’s bewildering to me that I never opted to get their Mountain Trooper.

Albert leans into the original figure design pretty strong. He’s got the green jacket with all sorts of reinforced patches. And instead of being all sculpted on the body like the original, we get the usual soft-vest with jacket sleeves sculpted on the arms and the illusion works fairly well here. I want to say the original figure had brown pants, whereas here we get gray. The boots are black with a green reinforced framework. The larger scale let Hasbro go all out with his gear, including a separate belt with two sculpted clusters of silver climbing hooks hanging off the sides. He’s got a chalk bag positioned in the back middle of the belt and there are various loops to attach gear to. We’ll come back to those in a bit. Finally, he has a coil of rope that rests on his shoulder and can be removed and fingerless black gloves.

Oh yeah, he’s also representing his home, Idaho with this cheesy, touristy T-shirt. It’s a wonderful little touch and I love it!

The head sculpt is OK. Again, since I didn’t own the RAH figure, I think I associate Alpine more with the cartoon than anything else so maybe that’s why this portrait isn’t a direct hit for me. It’s certainly not bad though. The ballcap is removable and the goggles can be worn up on his forehead or down over his eyes. It didn’t seem like they could comfortably fit over the cap though. The goggles have nice clear lenses and they look really good over the eyes.

Alpine’s climbing gear is mostly recreated from the RAH accessories, except you get two climbing axes instead of just one, while instead of two grappling hooks on one string you get a bigger, single hook. I’m pretty sure the climbing axes are new, or at least I haven’t seen them included with any of the figures I own. These are very nicely done with orange handles and silver painted blades. I especially love that they aren’t the same sculpt, as one has sculpted green tape near the handle. On the one hand, that’s an impressive little touch, on the other hand, it kind of makes up for the fact that they are the only new accessories included with him. Although I will toss it out there, that these look more like ice axes, but seeing as how I have lived in Florida for the last 30 years, I am in no way an expert on mountain climbing or ice, as we have none of those things here, so I may be far off base on that.

There are loops on the back of the belt that look like they are designed to hold the climbing axes, but they seem really awkward in those, so I opted to tuck them through the belts around his thighs. This method looks much more natural to me and makes Alpine a lot less likely to impale himself through the backs of his knees. That frees up any of the loops you want to hold the grappling hook, which is the same accessory that came with Arctic Storm Shadow.

His final piece of climbing gear is the rifle-style launch line, and this is the same one we saw included with the Alley Viper. I wasn’t a huge fan of this accessory with the Alley Viper, but it makes a lot more sense here. The grapple harpoon is painted orange to match the grips on the climbing axes, while the rifle is a nicely detailed sculpt and includes a scope. There’s also a loop on the gun and on the grapple to connect a piece of string, but it’s not included, so bring your own string. Now is as good a time as any to bring up the conspicuous absence of a backpack. The RAH figure came with one and it was integral to him carrying all his gear, but we don’t get one here and that seems like a really big oversight. Let’s move on to Alpine’s single weapon.

Like the grapple rifle, this assault rifle is also borrowed from the Alley Viper, which makes for a rather big departure from the submachine gun issued with the RAH figure. That weapon made more sense as it’s more compact and probably easier to handle when climbing. This one isn’t terribly large or unwieldly, but still maybe not ideal. On the other hand it’s one of my favorite weapon sculpts in the line. The detail is amazing, it’s got a drop out magazine and optics up on top. This one also has the magazine and stock painted green to give it a little character.

I like Alpine a lot, but I’m falling just short of loving him. The figure itself is fine, but I’m always a little disappointed when these guys can’t carry all their gear, and that goes double for a guy who should be able to pack all his gear while he’s climbing a mountain. The belt design doesn’t seem to really gel with the gear he has and the lack of a backpack to attach his grapple gun and rifle to is really unforgivable. I know I can’t be alone on that one, because it looks like a number of third-party talents have been 3D printing backpacks for this guy. Still, if this is what a disappointing Classified figure looks like, I’d say Hasbro is still doing pretty well. And it’s good to get Bazooka and Quick Kick reunited with their best bud.

Nov 25 2024

G. I. JOE Classified: Iron Grenadier (B.A.T.) Battle Android Trooper by Hasbro

New Classified figures arrived at my doorstep this weekend, and I’m pushing them to the head of the line. I feel terrible about this because so many of these figures have been waiting their turn for a long while. I’ve had a half-finished review of the Cobra STINGER brewing since last month, and the HasLab Dragonfly with its figures is sneering angrily at me from the other room. But, I have to go with what works and what I can budget into the time I have and so I’m rolling out Destro’s Battle Android Troopers!

I’ve mentioned a ton of times how happy I am to have Classified back in window boxes, especially since the character art on those closed boxes was so hit or miss. Plus I was always paranoid that I was tossing accessories with those tissue bags. Here you get to see the gorgeous figure and accessories before you even clip that tape. We’ve had four models of the Classified BATs so far with the regular and crimson flavors being my favorites and the Arctic BAT being a big disappointment, and forget about Python Patrol because I’m not going down that rabbit hole. So how are Destro’s personal BATs going to turn out? Let’s take a look!

Well, doesn’t this guy look gorgeous! From the neck down, the IG Bat is basically a repaint of the first model, taking the two best parts of the Arctic BAT while ignoring all the extra crap they added to him. The humanoid killing machine retains the black fatigues of the OG model, while changing the exposed arms to gold and peppering the rest of the deco with red and more gold. The result is so striking and fresh, that I had to do a close side-by-side comparison to confirm nothing had been changed in the sculpt. We finally get a proper clear chest cover, which is cool. The black ones grew on me quite a bit, but I do still like to see the circuitry displayed like on the original RAH models. The gun belt and holster are now red with a gold buckle and the backpack is recycled with a little red paint added to some of the hoses on the side. Finally, you get a nice crisp Iron Grenadiers patch printed on his left shoulder.

The head is borrowed from the Arctic BAT, which is one of the few things I liked about that figure and I’m happy to see it return. The gold and black deco looks great here, as does the shiny red cyclopean eye. You do get the option to go with a standard BAT head with the face plate painted red, and while it does look good, I’ll be sticking with the cyclops head. You also get an optional damaged chest plate, but I don’t think the damage shows up all that well with the clear plastic. I would much rather they had included a translucent red tinted cover as an option.

The other best thing about the Arctic BAT shows up here and that’s the chainsaw arm attachment. Naturally this piece gets the black and gold paint upgrade. And while the Arctic BAT was stingy and just came with the one weapon attachment, the IG BAT also comes with the full assortment from the original.

And that includes the flamethrower, claw, and drill-laser thing. As with the original, there’s room to store three of the four attachments on his backpack and I think the chainsaw looks fantastic hanging from the side. If you read my Arctic BAT review, you may remember that his chainsaw would not stay put when hung from the side of the pack, but this one does just fine.

And finally, you get the same pistol that came with the previous versions in a… you guessed it! Black and gold deco. It’s kind of funny that these guys even need a sidearm with all their weapon attachments, but I’m not going to turn my nose up at an extra gun.

By the time the Iron Grenadiers arrived on the scene in 1988, I was well out of buying toys and I wouldn’t be back into it for another 12 years. As a result, this is my first time owning any figures of Destro’s private faction and I’m glad to be experiencing it through Classified. Because I was disappointed with the Arctic BAT, I only preordered two of these guys, but I’m happy to say he turned out fantastic and I would love some more. Unfortunately, my life is all about packing things to move these days, so I may hold off on that urge for the time being. Plus, I’m really trying to get my army building compulsion under wraps. But that didn’t stop me from buying three of the Iron Grenadier soldiers, and I’ll be having a look at those here in the very near future!

Nov 20 2024

Transformers: The Movie Retro G1 Autobot Hound by Hasbro

As I’m packing up parts of my collection, I’m finding lots of odds and ends that never got their turn at the spotlight here on FFZ. And since these things are going into storage for a while until after my movie I wanted to take the opportunity to have a look at them. Today’s figure is a one-off purchase for me, despite Hasbro releasing a handful of figures in this format. And even then I waited until he was on pretty deep discount to bite. And that surprised even myself, seeing as Hound was one of my favorite Autobots in the early days of the Sunbow cartoon and one of my favorite G1 figures as well! It feels like Hasbro has a number of these G1 reissues on constant rotation, but the parade usually includes Soundwave, Blaster, Rodimus and sometimes Optimus Prime, whereas seeing Hound again was something new! Also, it’s kind of a busy week for me, so today’s going to be a quickie!

I’ll say straightaway that I’m not a fan of this packaging and that’s probably a big reason as to why I waited for him to get clearanced. Don’t get me wrong, it’s colorful, and there’s some great art here showing Hound in both modes. Also, the movie logo on the extended backflap with Unicron in the background is quite nice. But, if I’m buying a G1 reissue, I want it in the old G1 style packaging. Granted, this release happened during Hasbro’s plastic-free packaging phase, which probably precluded them from the old timey window box, so I guess this is a decent substitute. The back of the box shows the figure in both modes and you get a nod back to the old clip-and-save file cards, plus a lot of ugly multi-language print.

Of course, Hound’s vehicle mode is a military jeep and as near as i can tell uses the same molds as the original toy and the package even exclaims the official JEEP license. I always loved this vehicle mode as the open nature made it seem like the toy had to be extra clever to hide it’s engineering. I also really loved that it had actual seats, even if I never had any figures tiny enough to sit in him. You do get some diecast metal in addition to the plastic, which gives the toy a decent heft for it’s tiny size. Sadly all the chromed bits are replaced with off-white plastic, which is done under the guise of this being an animated version of the toy. The body is also a paler shade of green, and I will note that they did a pretty good job matching the color of the plastic with the diecast.

There are no stickers, but you do get a few tampos, including the the yellow triangles on the sides, as well as a yellow star and red Autobot insignia on front fenders. As with the original toy, the windshield is hinged, the gun in the back can pivot as well as raise and lower, and both the spare tire and gas can are removable. This is still a pretty attractive vehicle mode, even though I’ll always prefer the deeper green and chrome from the original toy.

The robot mode tells a lot of the same story. With the chrome gone and the paler green, it loses some of it’s pizzazz, but overall still looks good. The robot design is fantastic and fairly close to the animated counterpart, with the one exception being his tiny T-Rex arms. In this mode you get a rifle and a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, both the same style that came with the original figure. You even get three missiles on a sprue for the launcher. Hound’s little head is so tiny, it was hard to punch in for a look, but it’s nice to see they added some blue for his eyes. The figure does suffer from the same extremely limited articulation that we saw in a lot of the Class of 84 Autobot Cars, although many of those had hinges in the elbows and swivels in the wrists, whereas Hound can only move his arms at the shoulders. And yet somehow I still managed to have tons of fun with him back in the day.

All of this series of movie branded reissues seemed to go to clearance pretty quickly. I believe they started out as Walmart Exclusives, but eventually found their way to just about every toy retailer online. I want to say he retailed for around $35 when first released and while I would have definitely snapped him up if he were in proper G1 packaging, I think I wound up getting him for around $12. It’s nice to have a G1-style Hound in my collection again, as this is probably the first since my original when I was a kid. But, if you’re looking for something to replace your original toy, this probably ain’t it and I think most people would have rather seen a release closer to the chromed beauty that was the original release.

Nov 13 2024

Star Wars Vintage Collection (Rogue One): Antoc Merrick’s X-Wing Fighter by Hasbro

What’s this? Star Wars content? Yeah, the Star Wars reviews are getting few and far between, with this being only the fourth this year. Indeed, the only reason I’m sneaking this one in is because I’ve been packing away parts of my collection to move next year and I wanted to put this one in the spotlight before it gets sealed away for a few months. And I make it no secret that Rogue One is my favorite Star Wars film, just nudging out Empire Strikes Back by a bit, and I’m always down to showcase some Rogue One toys. So let’s pour one out for the late Antoc Merrick, Hero of Scarif and his brave little droid, which I’ll take a look at here too.

No doubt about it, The Vintage Collection does a nice job with its presentation with a not so subtle nod to the vintage Kenner packaging. Heck, you even get the Kenner logo! Both front and back panels show the toy and some figures in what they like to call a fantasy setting and boy do these always make me want to buy the toys and play with them. Why didn’t R2-SHW make it onto the box photo? Was he not out yet? Not sure, but Antoc is the only figure in the box and I picked up his R2 unit separately, but at the same time I bought the X-Wing. The noble starfighter does require some assembly, but it seems like it’s able to be taken apart again and stored in the box. That’s always a big plus for me!

And here are the carded figures. I was happy to see that Antoc came carded in the box. No, these are not collector friendly, but I opened both figures a while ago and was still able to get them back into the bubbles for this shot, so it is possible to have your cake and eat it too if you are careful. I love the card art for both figures, but Antoc’s is especially great, with his heroic pose, helmet in hand, and the X-Wing in the background, waiting for him to climb on board and fly his final mission. By God the battle over Scarif is so damn great! I think it rivals the Death Star II battle in Return of the Jedi, and that’s saying something! Let’s take a look at the figures first…

I’m guessing Antoc’s body is largely a repaint of an X-Wing Luke or another pilot figure, but the fact that I don’t know for sure shows how few Vintage Collection figures I buy. The blue-green suit is certainly distinctive, along with the tan gauntlets. The white vest, grey flight harness, and boots are all pretty standard. I’m not a fan of the weird jointing in the hips, but they get the job done. Otherwise the articulation consists of a lot of rotating hinges and he’s pretty fun to play with. The head sculpt is excellent, especially for this scale, while the printing on the helmet is absolutely superb, as is the yellow tinted visor. Alas, it does feel a tad too big for his head. Antoc also comes wtih a DH-17 Rebel blaster, which is a nice bonus, although I do wish these flight suits had holsters. Either way, I love this weapon design and it even has some silver paint hits.

R2-SHW is your standard R2 Unit with a red body and black paneling to the dome. You also get some silver paint work on some of his panels, which is OK, but maybe a tad sloppy in a few areas. He’s obviously another repurposed figure, and while I like the sculpt a lot, I think this is a case where the extras almost spoil the figure for me, namely the sensor scope and articulator arm. The sensor scope raises when you push the third leg in, but in order to do it you have to have the dome centered. You can pull it out but then there’s a missing panel up there. The articulator arm is ambitious for a figure this size, but the panel does not stay closed, so I’m not a fan. He also has hole in the top of his dome, which I’m going to guess was for the drink-serving arms on a previous Jabba Palace R2-D2 release. Not a terrible figure, but I think this is a case where less would have been more.

And since we’re on the subject of repurposing, yes the X-Wing is a repaint of the Luke Skywalker X-Wing, which I have, but have never gotten around to opening. It’s also already been packed away, so I can’t do a comparison. Reusing the toy is a no-brainer, and I sure don’t fault Hasbro for doing it, but it does result in some quibbles that are carried over from that first release. But there’s plenty of great stuff here too! Most notable is the size, as this is actually the first 3 3/4-inch scale X-Wing that I’ve held that wasn’t based on the original Kenner release. How crazy is that? And as wonderful a toy as that and the Power of the Force 2 releases were, it’s really cool to finally hold an X-Wing toy that approaches the correct size for this scale. It’s so satisfyingly big, and yet not too big to stop me from having fun whooshing it around the room and making attack runs on my Imperial Coffee Table.

The detail here is very nice, both in the sculpt and in the paint. The body is an off-white with lots of grime and carbon scoring to give it that wonderful used-future look. I particularly love the weathering applied to the blue squadron colors and the darkened scorched around the engines. Weathering can be tricky and can often come across as heavy handed, but I think they did a great job with it here. This ship looks like it’s been through some stuff, which makes it all the more sad that it didn’t survive the Battle of Scarif.

The X-Wing can rest on its three retractable landing gear. The front one is concealed behind a flip down hatch, while the two rear simply fold down from open compartments. Alas, the rear skids have a habit of folding back up at the drop of a hat, so stability is a big issue, at least it is on mine. You can sort of feel them trying to lock into place, but it’s very soft and just doesn’t work. Still, if you rest it on a surface carefully and don’t jostle it, it should be fine.

You also get a concealed proton torpedo launcher under the boom. The launcher is painted metallic grey and includes a white missile. I’ll also mention here how much I appreciate that all the screw holes are located on the fighter’s undercarriage. It would have been better if they were plugged, but at least they aren’t conspicuous.

The cockpit is very detailed and the console can be removed to make it easier to fit the figure in place. It even has an articulated targeting computer! I really dig the smoked clear plastic on the canopy, which lets you still catch a glimpse of the figure inside and looks better than if it were just transparent. Meanwhile, the droid slot fits the R2 unit perfectly. They really should have ejection units on these things, so at least the Astromech can escape before the fighter blows up. That would have actually made for a pretty fun play feature. Oh, and I do wish that Hasbro could have tossed in the boarding ladder. I know they released one in a previous set and it’s not like it would have broken the bank to bundle it in here.

Of course, the wings do articulate, and there’s a lever on the back of the X-Wing to lock the S-Foils into attack position. You push it down to open the wings and slide it to the right to lock them in place. And here’s where another flaw from the original release carries over, as the mechanism that holds them apart isn’t the strongest and they can be a little floppy. I’ve found that holding the ship by the main fuselage gives them the widest spread and it looks decent, but I would have liked to see them separate just a little farther. But it’s still a beautiful sight for the last thing a TIE Pilot will ever see!

I want to say the retail on Antoc and his X-Wing was around $100 back when it was released. I picked it up off of Amazon with a coupon and I think that brought it down to around $80. It’s a big, satisfying toy that looks absolutely fantastic and is a lot of fun to play with. Of course, Hasbro could have been a pal and threw in R2-SHW as well, but he cost me another $16. Normally, I would have had no intention on double-dipping on a toy like this, what with already owning Luke’s X-Wing, but I adore this movie and I adore the battle at the end, so this was pretty much a must-have for my collection. Plus, it gives my TIE Striker a Rebel ship to chase around. And I’ll admit, it’s cool to actually get excited and enthusiastic over a Star Wars toy again.

Nov 11 2024

Transformers X Knight Rider: Autobot Knight by Hasbro

Hasbro has been doing some super fun crossovers with their Transformers brand, and apart from some of the GI JOE offerings, I’ve been staying out of it, at least up until now. We’ve seen Transformers Ghostbusters, Back To The Future, TMNT, and Stranger Things, and to be honest, none of the robot modes have really spoken to me enough to get me to bite. But then they tossed Knight Rider into the mmix and everything gelled perfectly. KITT is already a super-smart car with a personality, so giving him the ability to transform just makes sense. Plus, at one point Peter Cullen actually voiced KITT’s nemesis, KARR so it all kind of fits together. Anyway, I preordered this one and it just arrived this past weekend, so let’s check it out!

In all my 50+ years of enjoying toys, I doubt that I will ever love a package design more than I do the G1 Transformers boxes. I’m sure part of it is nostalgia, but there’s something about that grid pattern, the logo, and the red or purple deco, depending on whether it’s an Autobot or Decepticon. Hasbro has brought it back for modern releases before, with mixed results, but what we got here is damn near perfect. The character art is fantastic and I can’t even put into words the feels I get when I see the battle art on the back. I got my first Transformers toys before seeing the Sunbow cartoon so that art will always have a special place in my heart. Yeah, there’s an unfortunate Anniversary logo and multi-lingual scrawl on the back, but it’s as close as they can get. On the downside, I’ll go ahead and say that this figure should have just been named KITT and I really do not like the Autobot Knight moniker they gave him instead. But hey, I can call him whatever i want, so KITT it is! Anyway, the packaging is so good, I was super careful taking him out, because he’ll forever be displayed in the box. I’ll also note that you will need a screwdriver and three LR44 batteries to work the electronics and Hasbro didn’t feel like hooking us up by including them. Let’s start with the auto mode!

I don’t know what size class you’d call this, but he’s definitely bigger than your average Deluxe. In the original TV show, KITT was a 1982 Pontiac Trans Am and Hasbro did indeed partner with Pontiac for the licensing on this toy. The end result is a really nice looking car mode with a higher degree of accuracy than I’m used to seeing on these toys. The body is done in all glossy black and while there are seams from the transformation, they really aren’t that bad at all. That’s probably helped along by the fact that this toy features a very simple and old-school conversion design. The rims on the wheels are silver, the front signal lights are orange, the tail lights are red, and you get white fog lamps on each side of the grill. The windows are tinted blue, which is an interesting choice. Not sure why they went with that, but it adds a little color and I’m not against it. I especially like the Knight Industries logo on the back where the license plate would be. It’s a great looking car that holds together really well too.

The headlamps actually flip up, which is a very cool touch. I would have liked stickers showing some detail in the headlamps instead of them being all white. The same goes for the red tail lights, which are just simple paint. I do like the placement of the Autobot insignia down on the apron, as it hides it a bit. There’s a button off center on the hood that activates the electronics. Press it once and KITT comes online along with the pulsing red Cylon-esque scanner light, travelling left and right. Pressing it activates not only the lights and sensor sound, but also some dialogue from KITT. If you leave the button alone for a while, KITT will announce that he’s going off line.

Transformation is about as simple as you can get for a toy of this size and price range. It follows the classic G1 Datsun engineering pretty closely, both in the conversion and in the robot design. That’s not a complaint, mind you. Having the front of the car as the chest, complete with the door wings behind the shoulder is as iconic and beautiful as it gets for me. The proportions are good and I like the placement of the wheels on the outside of the lower legs and behind the shoulders. The robot mode adds quite a bit of color, mostly in the form of pale grey and an electric blue, along with some red paint hits on the lower legs. Meanwhile, the back fills out pretty nicely as well. I believe the official transformation angles the door wings up, but I prefer them swept straight back. On the downside, I cannot get his chest to lock into place very well at all, so it tends to shift a bit when playing around with him.

The portrait design is OK. I like the traditional silver face and the translucent red visor is pretty cool. I don’t dig how big the eyes are, though and I feel like the “helmet” could have been a little bigger. Aside from giving him a William Daniels-style mustache, I don’t know what else I was expecting. It’s fine.

And yes, the electronics still function when he’s in robot mode, exactly the same way as when he is in car mode. I dig the look of the swooshing sensor on his chest!


As for weapons, you get a pair of pistols and a rifle, and these can be combined by tabbing the pistols into the side of the rifle if you like. Both weapons are cast in black plastic and I do like the designs a lot. As for articulation, he’s got everything you would expect from a modern Transformer and a pretty nice balance too. He’s just plain fun to play with.

And here’s a quick size comparison with Earthrise Optimus Prime and Studio Series Brawn. Yeah, he’s really big and I don’t think he displays well with the recent G1-style releases. I could make it work with Brawn, but he shouldn’t be as big as Optimus. He also towers over the Deluxe Autobot cars. So, he’s definitely going to be displayed on his own, which is fine because he’s basically just a one-off in my collection.

I got Autobot Knight from Amazon for $49 and he’s still available and In Stock at the time I’m writing this. It’s a nice toy and a cool idea, but the price feels pretty steep on this one. He’s big and the electronics are well done, but some may be put off by the extremely simple engineering for a toy at this price range. But then the prices on the Ghostbusters and Back to the Future releases were pretty pricey too and kept me away. In this case, I have no regrets about picking him up, but then I will buy just about anything Knight Rider that I come across, so your mileage may vary.

Oct 21 2024

G. I. JOE Classified: Retro Carded Cobra Commander by Hasbro

Howdy, Toy Hounds, as you know it’s been a crazy couple of weeks in my neck of the woods. Hurricanes and a long work week have taken their toll and FFZ had to take a mini hiatus while I recouped. Today’s review was meant for last week, but it was unfinished, and rather than re-write it, I wrapped it up and kicked it out for today. I would imagine the blog’s downtime will affect my plans to get all the Halloween content out, but I’ll likely extend that stuff into November if I have to. I have another pretty full work week this week as well, so we’ll see how it goes. OK… on with the toys!

I had planned to get to the Classified Cobra STINGER this week, but work’s been crazy and we’ve got another hurricane bearing down on us, so I’m bumping it for when I have more time and am not so stressed. Instead, let’s turn our attention to the figure that a lot of Classified collectors have been waiting for… Retro Cobra Commander! Of course, we got a Classified Cobra Commander way back at the beginning and it was a solid figure that I still dig a lot. But since then Classified has steered into traditional designs a lot harder and just like the original Duke and Scarlett, he doesn’t quite fit anymore. Then we got a more traditional Cobra Commander, but you had to buy a $300 HISS Tank to get him, so that wasn’t cool. But even back then rumors were buzzing that we’d get The Commander in wider retail release, so I held off opening my HasLab one to wait and see. And here we are!

Just to try a little something different, I’m going with a comparison instead of my traditional in-package shot. On the left we have the HasLab figure and on the right the new Retro Carded release. There are key differences, albeit a lot of those are in the paint, and you got one extra accessory with the HasLab release in the form of a snake coiled around a globe. The card art on the HasLab version is more traditional and you get the separate compartment at the top for the accessories, whereas the new release has just one elongated bubble. I like the overall art and presentation of the HasLab version much more, which is convenient, because I doubt I’ll ever open that one. And based on what I’ve seen so far, I think I’m going to dig the new release a lot more than the HasLab figure. But, let’s not jump the gun!

The uniform is as classic as you can get. He’s got the all blue suit, including the tunic with the buttons running up the right side, wide lapels, and a light blue turtleneck shirt peeking out from behind. Those black diamonds in his collar were always so iconic to me, even if I had no idea why they were there. He’s got the proper insignia this time, as opposed to the Mickey Mouse one on the HasLab release. The upper belt is painted white, while the lower belt is black with a silver buckle. He has matte black gauntlets and boots, with painted stirrups running down around the boots. There’s a knife sheath strapped to his left leg and he’s got a backpack to hold his trademark hairdryer pistol. The paint here is really on point, especially the silver buckles and the red striping down the trousers.

The helmet is very nice, particularly the vac-metal face plate, which is something I would have expected to see in a HasLab release and not a regular retail figure. The helmet features the white mohawk stripe from the cartoon and the edges of the helmet are much better defined against the face plate than the HasLab version. I dig this a lot!

The Commander sports some excellent articulation, which is pretty much in line with the usual Classified system of jointing. You do get the butterfly crunches in the shoulders, which is great. There are also these strange swivels just above the ankles, which I don’t recall ever seeing on a Classified figure before. Usually the lower leg swivels would be at the tops of boots. But hey, I’m not going to complain about added points. As for hands, CC comes with a pair of fists, a pair of trigger finger hands, a right pointing hand, and a left wide grip hand, which is left over from the HasLab figure and designed to hold the globe that was omitted here.

The backpack holster does it’s job well. The sleeve is sculpted to hug the contours of the weapon and it stays put just fine. You get some silver paint hits to whatever those buttons are supposed to be and there’s a Cobra emblem on a black field inside the disk on the outside of the holster. This backpack actually has one additional paint hit that is missing from the HasLab release.

I couldn’t tell you why, but I absolutely love CC’s hairdryer gun. Next to the JOE laser rifle, it’s probably my favorite weapon in all of JOEdom. It’s just a neat sci-fi design with some excellent detail in the sculpt. the muzzle looks like it’s designed to spit out a vicious hot energy beam and I can just picture The Commander laughing maniacally as he torches invading JOEs entering his Command Center. I was pretty upset that we didn’t get one with the first Classified Commander, but now all is right with the world.

Of course, the dagger is removable from the sheath, and it’s a pretty cool little Fairbairn–Sykes style weapon. Alas, The Commander doesn’t come with a hand that’s very well suited to wielding it. The best bet is either of the gun-holding hands and it does work, but not quite ideal. It’s hard to imagine the Sunbow Commander going up against anyone in a knife fight, but I’d like to think of this Classified Commander as being just a tad more spicy and unpredictable.

I love that Hasbro is using this Retro Carded sub-line as a way to bring earlier Classified figures in line with the more traditional direction that the line has taken. As I mentioned earlier, I still like the first Classified Commander quite a bit, but there’s no doubt that this one will be The Commander that I display front and center in my collection. Hasbro did an excellent job hitting all of my favorite design beats, and I never would have thought we’d get a vac-metal face shield in a regular release. I know a lot of people out there are still hoping for a hooded version, and while I’d like to see that too, this helmet remains my favorite look for The Commander, so either way I’m covered!

Sep 18 2024

G. I. JOE Classified: Big Boa by Hasbro

While I still have lots of old favorites to cover, GI JOE Classified is starting to dip into characters that appeared in the toy shelves after I was done buying toys as a kid, and a long way from me buying them as an adult. Some of these I may skip if I have no interest in them, but there’s a bunch that I am picking up and it’s kind of exciting to be experiencing a figure of a JOE or Cobra that I have never owned before. And that brings me to Big Boa! Released in the original Real American Hero line in 1987, I was 15yo and my limited teenage money was going into SEGA Master System games instead of toys. But, I was still keeping an eye on some of the toy lines I collected, and Big Boa was one that I would have happily picked up if he had just come out a year or two earlier.

Reunited with the window boxes and it feels so good! This is possibly my favorite iteration of the Classified packaging right here. The window shows off the goods, you get some great character art on the front and side panel, and all is right with the world. Big Boa was billed as Cobra’s hard-ass Trainer, pushing the Cobra Troops to their limits and beyond. In that sense, I guess I saw him as the Cobra version of Sgt. Slaughter. The character emerged from a plan to bring Sylvester Stallone onto the JOE team, but as I understood it Sly chose another direction and went with Coleco for a line of Rambo figures. And the rest is history.

Trainer or no, Boa doesn’t conform to any kind of Cobra uniform protocol. He agreed to the blue trousers and combat boots, but that was it. He goes shirtless with a red, spiked chest harness, red belt, and red codpiece to protect his snakeling. The red and blue looks quite striking together and I dig all the silver paint hits to the spikes, belt fixtures, and rivets. Despite the minimal costuming, you still get some great flourishes in the sculpt, like the braided pattern on the belt, stitching on the harness, laces in the boots, and some padded panels on the sides of the boots. The detail in the musculature is also nicely done! He also has white tape wrapped around his standard set of hands splattered with blood! I would have liked to see a Cobra insignia snuck in there somewhere, but even so I think this is a great looking figure!

I believe the unmasked head is a first for the character, or at least I know the original RAH figure came wearing a permanent helmet. I dig what we got here, even if it does lean in to the caricature side of things. But hey, that plays to the idea that Boa’s taken quite a few shots to the head and maybe there’s been some reconstructive surgery in his past. He’s got ample jowls, a bulb of a nose, and a strong brow. His ears look a little banged up and he’s got some teeth knocked out of his grill, suggesting Cobra’s dental plan may not be the best. I think his sneer is probably meant to be a nod to Stallone, but I see more John Fiore in that likeness than anything else. Whatever the case, it’s a wonderful portrait.

The helmet is a full on second head, rather than an actual helmet, and it’s a pretty close update to the RAH figure’s. It’s an interesting design with a little Boba Fett (or is that Boa Fett?) and a little Mad Max. It’s mostly off white with a silver grill on the front, narrow red visor, and a red spiked strip running down the center of the head like a mohawk. Obviously it’s going to protect against some of those shots to the melon, but it looks unnecessarily high tech, what with the breathing hose coming out of the side. I’m not sure where the inspirations here came from, but it looks cool.

The articulation is everything I’ve come to love about this line, as Hasbro has really locked in on a great compromise between posability and sculpt. We’ve seen it all before, so I won’t run down every point here. Suffice it to say, you get a great range of motion in the double-hinged elbows and knees, the hips pull down a bit, there are swivels in both the thighs and boots. They did a decent job working the ab hinge into the muscle sculpt so it’s a bit less obvious. The hips on my figure are just a tad loose, but everything else feels great and he is super fun to play around with.

The vintage figure came with a punching bag, whereas Hasbro decided to toss the Classified figure a pair of 90lb weights and I think that was a good choice. I’ll probably pose him wielding these as weapons.

And finally, you get a pair of boxing glove hands, and finally we get to see some Cobra insignia! These gloved hands include bands for the wrists to complete the look. It’s going to be a tough choice to decide whether to display Boa with the Cobra-branded boxing gloves or the bloody taped up hands.

As I said earlier, it’s fun to experience some of these old characters for the first time in Classified. I don’t have any childhood attachment to Big Boa, but I think this figure is great and he’s certainly a fun and colorful addition to my Cobra forces. Maybe Hasbro could have tossed in a few more accessories, as he does feel a tad light compared to some other releases, but he’s certainly got the essentials. I was originally going to pass on the Mad Marauders version of Sgt Slaughter, but seeing as how he comes with boxing gloves, I may need to pick him up so these guys can go mano-a-mano in the ring.

Aug 30 2024

G. I. JOE Classified: Cobra Commander (“Once A Man” SDCC Exclusive) by Hasbro

I think it’s safe to say that 2024’s Classified SDCC Exclusive generated a lot of surprise and delight among collectors. The line hasn’t shown a lot of strong ties to the Sunbow cartoon and yet here we are getting a Classified figure that references Cobra Commander’s grim fate in the ’87 GI JOE movie. Having been found guilty of incompetency, the denizens of Cobra-La sentence The Commander to slowly transmute into a snake. I’m not a huge fan of the film, but I will admit that Cobra Commander fate was probably the most disturbing thing I’d seen in a cartoon up to that point. Optimus Prime dying in The Transformers movie was sad, but this was just pure body horror that creeped me the hell out. As popular as this release was, I do think this was a great idea for an Exclusive, as I imagine there’s a good number of Classified collectors who don’t really care about that film and would be happy to pass on this figure. Then again, Hasbro did show off a Classified version of Nemesis Enforcer, so like it or not, Classified Cobra-La is very much a thing.

The set comes in a window box with a flap that has a lenticular front depicting the horrific transformation from man to snake man to snake creature. Alas, the effect baffles my camera, so you’ll have to settle for a shot of the flap open and showing off the goods inside. The set includes Cobra Commander in two stages of his terrible transformation, plus you get some extra hands and accessories, a lot of which are taken from the HISS HasLab Exclusive Commander and the yet to be released Retro-Carded Commander. Everything here is collector friendly, which is great because this is definitely a figure I will be displaying in the package.

The Commander comes out of the box as mid-transformation Snake Man after being exposed to the dreaded Spores! The waist down is borrowed from the previously mentioned Commander figures, although the belt buckle has been repainted from the HasLab figure. He still has his combat knife and sheath strapped to his left leg. The torso and arms are now newly sculpted snake skin with the remnants of his torn tunic worn like a vest. The snake skin is a cool mix of scales and bumpy textured areas and I think the mix of blue uniform and yellow orange snakeskin makes for a very attractive deco.

The mutated snake head is absolute nightmare fuel. It’s like his teeth have migrated to the outside of his face, a heavy brow ridge had formed and he’s got multiple eyes budding out on his cheeks and forehead. There are some sculpted fangs showing, but these aren’t painted so it can be hard to make them out. I think the printing for the blue eyes is a bit miffed, but otherwise, this is a great sculpt that would have make any David Cronenberg film proud.

You also get a fully helmeted head. This appears to be the same sculpt as the previously mentioned Commander figures. It does have the cartoon-style white stripe at the top, which the Retro-Carded release will have, but was lacking from the HasLab version. There is also a detached face mask, which Roadblock picks up in the movie. It has some cracks and the inside of the mask is highly detailed with all sorts of circuitry.

Also repacked is the classic hairdryer-style pistol and backpack to mount it on. This is a bit of an odd inclusion, as I’m pretty sure I remember him being disarmed when they put him in the giant clam and he’s never shown with it after inhaling the spores. But am I complaining? Nope. It’s great that they included it and I can always give this to the regular Classified Cobra Commander if I want to.

Finally, you get the extra hands that came with the other two Cobra Commander figures. These include fists, accessory holding hands, a pointy finger right hand and a open grip left hand.

The more mutated version of the figure is mostly cast in a dense rubbery plastic. The arms have some articulation at the shoulders, but otherwise it’s a static piece. The tail is partially coiled, which works well to have him stand. You can also use it to wrap around another Roadblock like he did in the movie. There’s a cut in the tail, but mine does not want to swivel, so I’m not sure if this is intended as an articulation point or just a seam from where the figure was assembled.

Hasbro did a nice job on the production side of this set, but no so much on the selling end. It was available after the convention as a Pulse Exclusive and it sold out immediately. Later it returned sporadically, selling out and coming back into stock seemingly at random times. And that was probably more frustrating than if it had just sold out quickly and was gone. Some people will argue that back in the day SDCC Exclusives were only available to attendees, so any slim chance to get one afterwards is better than it used to be. That may be true, but I still think Hasbro handled it poorly. And the idea of placing a five per customer limit is just ridiculous and seriously needs to stop. It serves no purpose other than to feed scalpers. In the end, I was happy to get one on Pulse, but I wouldn’t have chased it on the second hand market if I didn’t. Especially with it going for double the price. This is a cool figure to have, but certainly not one I would consider essential to my Classified collection. And I haven’t even decided yet whether I will pursue the Cobra-La Classified figures at all.

Aug 19 2024

G. I. JOE Classified: Night-Creeper and Jinx by Hasbro

It feels like new Classified figures are arriving every other week, burying my large backlog little by little. Indeed, I think I could devote this entire blog to this line and still not be caught up for a long while. But, these are nice problems to have, and it’s rare these days to get an action figure line producing this kind of quality and quantity on a regular basis. I pushed these two recent additions to the front of the line, Night-Creeper and Jinx, but not necessarily because I was super excited to get them, but more because I don’t think I ever owned either of the original figures, so I’m entering unexplored territory!

Classified is back to using the window boxes and they got something of a redesign. They are a lot less colorful than the older boxes, but I like them a lot. There’s a sense of classy uniformity here and I frankly, I think the best marketing this line can do is just show off how good the figures look. I’ve gone on record many times here with how I’m not a big fan of ninjas taking over my GI JOE vs Cobra narrative, but sprinkling them sparingly into the mix ain’t necessarily a bad thing. In this case, my only familiarity with Jinx has been from the original movie and I have very little familiarity with the Night-Creeper at all, so let’s start with him.

Night-Creeper was first released in the Real American Hero line in 1990 and I was well out of GI JOE by then. I was just starting college, what little disposable income I had was spent on video games, and it would be about a decade until I would start collecting toys as an adult. With that having been said, this guy looks like a pretty solid update to that original figure. The maroon, gray, and purple deco is certainly distinctive without being quite as outrageous as the feast of neon decos that was yet to come. The sculpt gets by with some rumples to the suit, prominent shoulder cuffs and a plate armor vest. Finally, there’s a belt worn by the figure that has sheathes for his twin hooked blades to live. The original outfit design is enhanced here by some segmented armor shin guards and tabi.

You get two heads to choose from. The first pays respects to the original figure, and I think this is an awesome update. The face is covered with a featureless mask and the eyes shielded by a silver visor. All that is wrapped up in a hood and topped off with a silver skull cap. The hood is attached to the head so it works well with the neck articulation.

The second head references the next version of Night-Creeper, which was put out about three years later. This one is a fully enclosed helmet and features what I think is a much stronger sci-fi vibe. There’s an interesting mix of organic curves with some harsh angles in the cheeks. The visor strip is painted in red, while the rest of the helmet and mask match the maroon and purple of the suit. I will likely stick with the first helmet for display, but this one is really creepy and I dig it a lot.

The backpack is designed to hold all the rest of his gear and it has its ups and downs. There are clips on the sides for his two swords. There are some sculpted crossbow bolts across the back along with one free slot to store a loose bolt, and there are two triangular tabs to secure his crossbow. In theory it’s great, but I find that the sword clips are the only thing that really work very well. The loose bolt will stay notched as long as you don’t put the crossbow over it, meanwhile, the tabs to hold the crossbow are warped and don’t align properly. As a result, the crossbow pops out very easily as does the bolt. This rig also makes the figure very back-heavy. Normally, I love when figures can carry all their stuff, but in this case, it’s kind of a disaster.

Night-Creeper comes with two sets of hands. The first pair are both gun-hands with trigger fingers, but these work fine as all-purpose accessory holding hands. The other set includes a right chopping hand and a left hand with a black shuriken sculpted into it. I’m a big fan of the sculpted shuriken, rather than trying to have to get him to hold a tiny loose one. A left chopping hand or fist would have been nice, but I’m still happy with the variety here.

The hooked knives are cast in all black and at least these secure quite well in the sheaths and work fine with the gun-hands. These knives also have rings in the pommels so you can attach a chain or a piece of string.

The swords are very cool updates to the ones included with the original figure, with each having a unique and wicked looking blades. One has a wavy kris-style blade in silver and the other has barbed hooks and is finished in a metallic green. Both weapons have black hilts with excellent sculpted detail.

And finally, Night-Creeper comes with his crossbow and a single loose bolt. I dig the crossbow a lot, even if it is rather bulky. It’s rifle configuration has a stock and a foregrip and it’s sculpted with reserve hours stored underneath. You can load the loose arrow into the weapon and it stays put there a lot better than it does in the backpack. A few design issues aside, Night-Creeper is a very cool looking figure with a great array of accessories. Let’s move on to Jinx!

As I mentioned at the beginning, my only exposure to Jinx was from the original animated movie. I may have still been picked up a few JOEs when Jinx’s figure released in 1987, but she wasn’t one of them. Couple that with my relative indifference toward mixing ninjas in my GI JOEs, and this Classified release wasn’t super high on my list, but in hand I’m pretty pleased with her. She comes in a sculpted red ninja suit with a black sash tied around her waist and a black dragon emblem printed over her left breast. The suit has some purple accents on the sides, her arms are exposed and there’s a tattoo printed down the length of her right arm. The costume is rounded out by black wrappings over her forearms, wrists and palms and red and black slippers. Jinx’s certainly isn’t one of the more elaborate body sculpts we’ve had in Classified, but it does a fine job paying respect to the source material. I think she strikes a nice balance between the RAH and Sunbow designs.

You get two heads to choose from: One masked and one unmasked. Both of these are excellent, but I think Hasbro did a particularly nice job on the unmasked face. It’s a very pretty sculpt with extremely clean printing for the lips and eyes and the hair looks great. There’s a removable choker neckless, and she has a black headband, which can be lowered to work as a blindfold, referencing her uncanny abilities at fighting blind as demonstrated in the film. The masked head doesn’t allow for as much flare in the sculpt, but you do still get to see her pretty eyes. It’s nice to have these options, but I’ll likely be displaying her unmasked most of the time.

Jinx comes with two sets of hands, which include an accessory holding pair and a pair of fists. I know asking for three pairs of hands in a regular Classified release may sound greedy, but the lack of chopping hands feels like a really big omission. Indeed, I would have rather had chopping hands than fists. I’ll also toss out here that I could have done without the arm tattoo. The Classified design team seems to have a real tattoo fetish. In a lot of cases I think it enhances the figure, but not here. It’s especially annoying since they probably redesigned her without the long sleeves just to tatt her up.

The original RAH figure came with two swords and a backpack to hold them, whereas this Classified version comes with one sword and a scabbard that pegs into her back. I’m fine with this, as I think the scabbard looks better than the backpack The sword is a simple sculpt with some detailed wrappings on the grip but nothing on the tsuba. Alas, the blade and tsuba are left bare gray plastic, and these would have looked much better painted silver.

Jinx also comes with a double-bladed pole weapon based on the one included with the RAH figure. The blades have ornate designs and are painted silver, while the pole is black and there’s some maroon paint on the sculpted wraps near each blade.

Even as a tepid I am on ninjas in my GI JOE, I like these figures quite a bit. Night-Creeper could have used some quality control on his backpack’s crossbow tabs, but overall, he’s a really cool figure that comes with a lot of neat stuff. My only real issue with Jinx is she seems light on accessories when compared with Night-Creeper, so that extra pair of chopping hands doesn’t seem like that big an ask. And these will probably do it for me and Classified ninjas for a while. I skipped Kamakura because I just had no interest in him, but I do still have a few Cobra ninjas in my collection to check out, but I’ll likely save those for if I ever get caught up.