Tag Archives: hasbro

Nov 26 2012

Transformers Fall of Cybertron: Swindle by Hasbro

Why yes, my Xbox is still out of commission! Thanks for asking! As a result, I still haven’t made it through Fall of Cybertron. I have a replacement drive for it and I keep telling myself I’m going to fix it and I never do. But then, I also told myself I wasn’t going to buy the trade editions of the Combaticons, because I didn’t like the colors, and today we can see how that turned out. It seems like I enjoy lying to myself… a lot. Yesterday, I found three of the five Combaticons hanging on the pegs, and here’s how that went: “Well, I’ve got to buy Swindle. Swindle is the man,” says I. “But, hey, Blast Off looks really cool too!” And then I just said “Screw it!” and tossed Onslaught into the cart as well. But I’ll get to the others in good time. Today is about Swindle, and yes, Swindle is indeed the man.

Oh, God, what glorious packaging! When I saw this on the peg, I never had a chance. I’ve already pontificated on my love for the new Generations cards, so I’ll try to keep it quick here. The old G1-style grid pattern is awesome. And check out Swindle’s character art. I love the smarmy look on his face and the way he’s pointing to his weapon. I can’t tell whether he’s going to shoot me with it or try to sell it to me. Swindle was always one of my favorites from the old Sunbow cartoon and I think this artwork does him justice. Well played, Hasbro. Swindle is carded in his robot form, which seems to be par for the course with the Fall of Cybertron figures.

The only real differences in the packaging here over the other Fall of Cybertron figures I’ve looked at is the fact that Swindle is a combiner and the package goes out of its way to tell you that. First off, there’s a big sticker on the bubble that says “BUILD GIANT ROBOT!” That’s the kind of glorious Japanenglish that I expect to see on Hong Kong bootlegs, not on a genuine Hasbro release. The top corner of the card also proclaims that Swindle is “Part 4 out of 5” for Decepticon Bruticus. The back of the card has an excellent little bio of Swindle and a diagram showing where he falls into the Bruticus build.


Let’s start with Swindle’s alt mode, which is a Cybertronian transport. It’s nothing terribly special, but aesthetically, it fits in pretty well with the other Cybertron vehicles we’ve seen in the Generations series. I like the fact that it has no windows (because Cybertron alt forms shouldn’t!) and the way the gun plugs into the top. There’s a lot less panel line detail to the sculpt than we last saw in Jazz or Shockwave. I’m guessing Hasbro had to cut back on the sculpting a bit since Swindle is sort of a triple changer. Then again, he forms Bruticus’ leg by standing upright in vehicle mode, so there isn’t really any added engineering for that function. Overall, I’m ok with the coloring. For me, Swindle had to be yellow, which is why I can’t commit to the exclusive G2 version of Bruticus. The purple is a traditional Decepticon color too, so I can’t complain about that and he’s rounded out with a little black and grey. I just wish the yellow wasn’t so bright, because it clashes with the purple to give off a blinding neon vibe. Still, I can deal with it.

Transforming Swindle is as easy as it gets. The fact that he’s designated as a Level 2 Intermediate makes me wonder what Hasbro would consider a Level 1. Still, I don’t need my Transformers over engineered just for the sake of it. Swindle’s transformation has a clean and simple G1 feel to it and the figure works well with everything pegging in to make a solid vehicle and a solid robot.


In robot mode, Swindle looks damn good… from the front. From the back he looks rather hollow and unfinished, reminding me a lot of the Energon Rodimus figure. Nevertheless, he has nice, clean proportions and a lot of good detail on his legs and arms, and the way his shoulder armor can pivot front and back is nice. I really like his head sculpt, although a grey paint app on the face would have been welcome to really bring the figure together. I should also point out that Swindle is a nice sized Deluxe. I’ve taken great umbrage with the shrinking size of the Deluxe Class figures as of late, but Swindle is on par with the War for Cybertron versions of Megatron and Soundwave, and considerably bigger than poor little Shockwave.

 


Like I said, once I saw Swindle on the peg, I never had a chance. I love the character and that Generations packaging practically hypnotizes me into forking over my money. But while I’m happy with how he turned out, $15 is still way too much for this figure, Hasbro, and I didn’t truly realize how absurd it is until I picked up three Deluxes at once for $45. Holy shit… $45!!!  But price notwithstanding, Swindle is a cool addition to the Generations line of Cybertron figures, and while I’m not exactly jonesing to build Bruticus, that’s ok because he works great as a stand-alone figure.

Nov 13 2012

Marvel Universe: Future Foundation Spider-Man by Hasbro

It seems like forever since I last featured a Marvel Universe figure. Why? Well, as usual, the new waves haven’t been showing up on the pegs here and I just haven’t been motivated enough to buy an entire case like I’ve done in the past. Nonetheless, there were a couple of figures where I was willing to splurge and get singles online and FF Spidey was one of them. Ironic, since I’ve managed to avoid all the Spidey toy merchandising madness involving the release of the Amazing Spider-Man film (including the film itself!) but maybe that will change this week when I finally sit down and check out the flick on Blu-Ray.

Marvel Universe packaging hasn’t changed much, but gone are the days of enclosed figure stands, and even those cool little envelopes with file cards have been replaced with shitty little mock comic book covers. But wait! Flip the card over and it’s got MODOK on it schilling the rest of the figures and that right there made my day. A little MODOK threatening me so that I will buy toys is worth all the figure stands in Christendom. I’ll point out now that I really think this FF Spidey should have been included in the Future Foundation multi-pack, but seeing as how that was a repaint of the regular Fantastic Four multi-pack, and I know how these things work, I can’t say as I’m surprised. And hey, it meant that Hasbro sucked an extra ten bucks out of me. Well done, Hasbro. Well done.

I can’t place the body being used here. It’s likely just the standard new buck, but it’s certainly not that same old 3 ¾” Spidey body that I’ve purchased a bunch of times over. For starters, the head sculpt looks new and it’s much better proportioned to the body than some of the other, smaller Spidey heads. And then there’s the body. The body itself is much bulkier than past Spider-Man figures. Yes, this is one seriously ‘roided out Spider-Man with some major guns. Either Spidey’s been doing a whole lot of curls at the Baxter Building or Hasbro is just trying to scrape buy with an inappropriate body here. It certainly looks like someone other than Parker is wearing the suit.

Having bought the figure online, I was a little concerned about how well the deco would match my other FF members. After all, the only reason I’m buying it is to display with the rest of the FF team. As it turns out, the deco matches just fine. The paintwork is very nice and he’s got the same level of wash as the others and he looks just fine when posed with the rest of the FF crew. I’d go so far as to say that the paint is more impressive on this figure than the Marvel Legends version.

Articulation? I need my Spidey figures to be super articulated, and the articulation on this guy is impressive. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, and hips, plus the neck has the additional hinge to help him look up. You get single hinged elbows and double hinges in the knees. There are swivels in the biceps, wrists, upper thighs, and lower legs! The ankles feature regular hinges and additional rockers. His torso swivels at the waist and has a ball joint up near the chest. About the only thing I could improve on here would be double hinged elbows, but even still his poseability is great. On a side note, Spidey uses those pegging ball joints for his hips, which are certainly better than the rotating hinge joints that Hasbro has been using in many of their 3 ¾” movie figures. On the other hand, these have an annoying habit of pulling out. I guess you can’t have everything.

Spidey comes with one accessory, and it’s that terrible web effect piece that has come with countless other MU Spidey figures in the past. I hate this thing almost as much as that terrible funnel of energy that comes with all the Iron Man figures.

I’m often fond of bitching about the lack of value in many of these MU figures. No figure stand, no decent accessories, and lots of re-use of parts. Nonetheless, I’m a whore to the Fantastic Four comics, so this figure was always going to be a “must buy” for me. The inappropriate build of the figure takes a little getting used to, but the deco is nice and the articulation is quite excellent.

Nov 10 2012

Transformers Prime: Hot Shot by Hasbro

It took me a while, but Hot Shot here is the last Transformer sitting on my new acquisitions pile, so I thought we’d knock him out this weekend before I start getting around to buying some more. He is a repaint of the Deluxe Bumblebee, and so well done that I didn’t even realize it when I bought him. I’ve got some social obligations this weekend, so I’m going to try to get through this guy pretty quickly. Being a repaint, I should be able to be brief and still give him his due.

Yes sir, I still really dig the packaging for Prime. I wouldn’t have thought that a largely white deco would have been a good idea, but these cards look great on the pegs and make me want to buy them. Hot Shot has some particularly nice character art on the oversized card and he is packaged in his vehicle mode, with a bio blurb on the back of the card. Not much new to say here, so let’s move on to the figure.

Out of the package and it’s amazing the differences that a simple repaint can make. Of course, it helps that Hasbro put a lot more effort into Hot Shot’s deco than Bumblebee’s. Hot Shot’s car mode is blue with some stylized flames tampo’d on the sides and the hood, which looks loads better than BB’s bare yellow plastic and sloppy black paint. The windows and headlights here are translucent blue plastic and Hot Shot even has painted tail lights. The differences here aren’t just about color and design preference, Hot Shot just features better workmanship. Seriously, standing next to this guy, Bumblebee just looks like a bad custom job. I love the way this guy looks and with a little tweaking, he could have made a nice  homage to G1 Tracks.

In robot mode, Hot Shot sports a brand new head, which features flip down goggles. They’re a cool nod back to the visor on Armada Hot Shot and they offer a little variety on how he can be displayed, although I still prefer him with them up. His robot deco introduces grey plastic and red paint to the mix, and the resulting combination really makes this figure pop. I’m still far behind on watching the show, so I know nothing about the character, but I do know that this guy looks a lot better than Bumblebee standing on my shelf. Oh, did I mention that already? Well, it’s worth mentioning again.

As a repaint, Hot Shot features the same articulation as Bumblebee. His arms rotate and have lateral movement at the shoulders and swivels and hinges at the elbows, but no wrist articulation. His legs are ball jointed at the hips, with additional swivels just below those ball joints. He’s also hinged at the knees and ankles. There’s no torso articulation, but the head is ball jointed at the neck, and as already mentioned, his visor can flip up and down.

Hot Shot comes with the same blasters as Bumblebee. I love these things. You can mount them on his arms or combine them into one big gun. They can also be plugged into the engine socket when Hot Shot is in his alt mode.

Hasbro really won me over with this sculpt when I bought Bumblebee, but lost me with all the cheap cuts and sloppy work on his deco. Hot Shot really fixes all of those problems and shows how much better this mold can look with some quality paint. It makes me question why Hasbro would put so much effort into Hot Shot, while leaving one of the main characters to scrape by. I will admit that I would love to see this mold repainted the red Rodimus style deco that Hot Shot got in Armada and Energon, but this one is still plenty good. In fact, the only bad thing here is that Hot Shot, along with Bumblebee, is still clogging all the pegs and keeping the other Deluxes from making it out of the stockrooms.

Nov 9 2012

GI JOE 30th Anniversary Collection: Sky Striker by Hasbro

So, remember that one item that I found at Marshall’s last Friday that was worth standing in line for? Yeah, this was it. I’ll have you all know that this purchase represents a personal defeat for me. I often run checks on my collecting habit versus my sanity just to make sure that I haven’t gone overboard. One of those checks is having the rationality to determine whether I have somewhere to go with a particular piece and I’m not turning into one of those hoarding freaks you see on TV. I have very specific boundaries set up over where my toys live and where the rest of my home begins and with the exception of a couple of items I have displayed in my library, those boundaries have held fast. The reason I never bought the Sky Striker when it was originally out on shelves was because I knew I had nowhere to go with it, and I suspected that once it was built, it wasn’t going to go back in the box for easy storage.

Nonetheless, when I saw it sitting there alone on the shelf at Marshalls on clearance, I couldn’t resist taking it home. That may seem odd, since I’m certainly not a very big GI JOE collector these days, and before today, I haven’t picked up any of the 30th Anniversary stuff, except for a lone Destro figure. I attribute my lapse of reason to the fact that when I was a kid, I fell in love with the Sky Striker from the old Sunbow cartoon and I absolutely adored the original toy. So, yeah, I guess I’m blaming nostalgia on this one. It’s hard to believe I don’t do that more often.

The Sky Striker comes in a sizeable box with some wonderful artwork and a little window cut out to show off the Ace figure. I love this kind of packaging over window boxes, mainly because it’s durable and so long as the toy inside doesn’t require a lot of assembly, you can use these boxes to store the toy when you aren’t displaying it.


Hmm… so much for not requiring a lot of assembly. As sizeable as the box is, it’s pretty easy to tell when holding it that it isn’t as big as the Sky Striker. Open it up and you can quickly see that the wings, rear fins, engines, and the entire cockpit and nose portion of the aircraft aren’t attached. That was the first thing I noticed. The second thing? Holy shit, that’s a lot of stickers! I love stickers. Part of me was content to leave this thing boxed until sometime in the future where I might be in a bigger place and have more room to display stuff. But how could I resist all those stickers? There are over 30 “No Step” stickers alone! Mmm… stickers. Either way, I haven’t even seen one of these babies since I last had my original some 20 years ago. I was super anxious to get it together and check it out. As suspected, this jet is not designed to come apart once it’s together, so sadly I’ll wind up trashing the box.

All slapped together, I spent the better part of my Sunday morning with a pot of coffee and stickers while FigureFeline made a nest out of the box. We were both in heaven! There are a bunch of optional swap-out stickers so if you want to buy more than one of these, you can customize them quite a bit, including different color striping and different art for the tail fins. Ok, that’s the last time I talk about stickers… promise!

So, how different is it from the vintage toy? The body is molded in grey plastic rather than white, which is a big plus in my book. Besides looking more realistic to me, I don’t have to worry about it yellowing. The rear fins are black, and the canopy is no longer tinted, but it does have a nice painted frame. The inside of the cockpit has been retooled to fit the newer size figures. The rear seat has been taken out completely, the cockpit is more detailed, and let’s face it, Short Round said it best, “Doctor Jones, Doctor Jones! No. More. Parachutes!” I can’t say I’d quarrel with any of these changes. They’re either improvements or understandable sacrifices.

The one change that I wish Hasbro had taken out remains true to the original toy. Yep, I’m talking about the fact that the wings are tied to the same mechanism as the landing gear. New Sky Striker has the same slider lever on top that converts the wings to the swept back position and also retracts the landing gear. It never really bugged me as a kid, but it kind of bugs me now.

Naturally, the Sky Striker comes with Ace and unfortunately I’m not real crazy about him. I appreciate the insane amount of work Hasbro put into the layers and complexities of his flight suit, but in the end he just looks like a kit-bashed mess to me. The flight helmet is particularly awful and I hate the yellow plastic they used for the visor. The 25th Anniversary Ace was no prize either, but I’ll likely wind up swapping him out into the pilot’s seat when I finally find some way to display this thing, just because that’s more akin to the Ace I knew and loved.

While the new Sky Striker has its share of tweaks and bobs, it is at heart still the same old toy and It’s remarkable how well it holds up today. This toy is an iconic thing of beauty and it looks quite majestic standing on the edge of my desk waiting to take off into battle. It really brings back the memories of my buddies and I flying our Sky Strikers around the backyard doing airstrikes on Cobra fools. Even at the original MSRP of around $35, I thought this thing was reasonably priced, but Marshall’s had it for ten bucks less so all the better. I’m sure as hell not sorry I bought it, even if it did take over an hour of reorganizing to make room for it on the shelf next to my BMF Falcon, AT-AT and Slave-1.

Nov 3 2012

Transformers Fall of Cybertron: Jazz by Hasbro

With my Xbox still on the repair heap, I haven’t progressed past the first four levels of Fall of Cybertron. At this rate, I may just Red Box the PS3 version so I can do it. In the meantime, I continue to experience the game vicariously through the toys. Today, we’re checking out Jazz, who was a pretty cool character in the game… at least what I’ve been able to play of it.

Jazz is branded as part of the return of the Generations line. We last saw this packaging when we looked at Fall of Cybertron Shockwave, and I still love it to pieces. I fully approve anytime Hasbro uses the old G1-style grid pattern on their packages and the character art is pretty great. Jazz comes carded in his robot mode with his blaster pistol beside him. The back of the card has a little bit about his character and Tech Specs. Hurray for Tech Specs! Everything about this packaging is love, so much so, that it almost made me buy that shitty new dumbed down version of Cybertronian Optimus Prime. Almost. Instead, I just ran home and hugged my beautiful but overly complicated War for Cybertron Optimus.

 

Let’s start with Jazz’s alt mode. I really dig the various Autobot Cybertonian modes in these games. They walk the fine line of being sort of alien and yet still reminiscent of the Earth style alt modes that we associate with these characters. I’m not crazy about the way the unpainted white plastic looks, but I do appreciate all the sculpted panel lines in the mold. Jazz’s weapon plugs into the top of his vehicle mode, allowing him to dish out a symphony of hurt even when he’s not in bot form.

Transforming Jazz into robot mode is pretty simple in theory. Swiveling around his torso into the right configuration is kind of fidgety at first, but everything else is woefully simple for a Deluxe Class figure. I’m pretty sure I could come up with a handful of recent Scout/Basic Class toys that have more involved engineering. That could be good or bad, depending on how much you want your Transformers to challenge you.

In robot mode Jazz is… ok. I’m still not at all happy with the look and feel of the bare white plastic. It kind of feels cheap, although again the detailed panel lining in the mold helps a bit. The biggest flaw with the figure is the way Jazz’s head just kind of hangs there in midair. It just looks odd. Also, I really don’t get what Hasbro is doing with the extra fake wheels in the robot modes these days. I just saw this in TF Prime Cliffjumper and Bulkhead, and here it is again. The only difference is these are actually painted and more obvious. Why have three pairs of wheels showing on the robot when the vehicle only has two pairs? Why, Hasbro? WHY? Hang on, I need a sip of Jameson. Whiskey makes everything better… let’s move on.

Jazz features serviceable articulation, and a brand new style of ratcheting joints that I have not seen in Deluxe Transformers before, nor do I really see the point. They’re not as versatile as ball joints, and considering how small the figure is, I don’t see the need for the stronger ratchets.

I think what disappoints me the most about Jazz is his size. In the game, he’s paired up with Cliffjumper and he’s a bit too small when standing next to my War for Cybertron Cliffjumper. To be fair, the problem lies more with the WFC Bumblebee and Cliffjumper molds being too large when compared to the other Deluxes, like Optimus Prime and Megatron. So it’s not all Jazz’s fault and the two bots certainly look great hanging together on my shelf.

One might argue this could be a conspiracy to sell collectors a new Cliffjumper figure, but I doubt he’ll be remade in the Fall of Cybertron line. I don’t think Hasbro could possibly make that design work with the cuts they’ve been making to the Deluxe figures these days. Even if they did, I wouldn’t pay more money for an inferior figure, and that’s why you won’t see me feature the Fall of Cybertron Optimus Prime here anytime soon. That figure is a joke compared to the War for Cybertron version. I know what you’re saying, you’ll buy him when he’s repainted as Ultra Magnus, won’t you? Shut up!

In fact, while we’re on the subject, it’s interesting to stand Jazz and Cliffjumper together and compare them to see just how many cuts Hasbro has had to make in the line as of late. Cliffjumper isn’t quite two years old (I bought him in December of 2010) and at the time he was about $13 at Walmart. He’s bigger, his plastic feels better, the paint apps are more intricate, he uses some translucent plastic parts, including two built in retractable energon blades, the engineering is far more complex, and he has far more articulation, and he came with a gun. Even if we write off the two dollar price difference to inflation, you were still getting a lot more toy back then for the same price.

It should also be considered that no one really expected War for Cybertron to be the runaway success that it was and Hasbro never really committed to backing the game with a lot of figures. It was something of an experimental side line and only produced a handful of Deluxes. The success of Fall of Cybertron was all but guaranteed and Hasbro expanded the line with a lot more figures. And yet still, the limited, experimental line of figures, from two years ago, is far superior.

Sorry, Jazz, I didn’t mean to use your spotlight to get on my soapbox, but I thought it was an interesting illustration of just how much toy companies, particularly Hasbro, have to cut back on what we’re getting. There’s a reason Hasbro is pushing the Cyberverse line so much, because the figures use less plastic and less engineering. Of course, we’ve also seen it in the articulation in lines like GI Joe Retaliation and Avengers, and it seems particularly obvious in lines like Transformers where you can’t reuse parts like you can with Marvel Legends, Marvel Universe, or DC Universe Classics. All that having been said, Jazz is a solid enough figure. I don’t hate him, but he certainly has his issues, probably the biggest of which is his price tag. At $15, he’s just not a terribly good value.

Oct 31 2012

Vintage Vault: Transformers Collectors’ Case by Hasbro

Hey look! It’s another Collector Case! Yeah, I picked up two of these at the Toy Show. One was for Playmates’ Star Trek line, but this one holds a lot more sentimental value for me, because as a kid, I used a case exactly like this one to cart around my Transformers. A lot of these vintage Collector Cases were more about form over function, as they didn’t tend to hold a lot of figures, and the Transformers case we’re looking at today was one of the least efficient in terms of carrying capacity. I bought this one to repurpose as a modern Transformers case, so let’s see how that worked out.

There were a couple different “official” Transformers collector cases on the market back in the day, but since this was the one that I had as a kid, it was the one that I was really gunning for. What’s here is pretty simple, as it’s just a vinyl briefcase style case with a handle that slips through a slot in the flap to hold it together. A lot of these things had snapping lock, but this one just made due by pushing the handle through a slot in the top. It’s not quite as secure as the ones with the lock, but so long as you were carrying it by the handle, it couldn’t spill open.

The artwork consists of the glorious panoramic battle scene that graced the back of the earliest G1 packages. I absolutely adore this piece of art, because it shows us that very rare peak into the franchise in its purest form, before it got so heavily influenced by the Sunbow cartoon. I got my first Transformers toys before ever seeing the cartoon, so this character art never looked odd or different to me. In fact, it took me a little while to get used to the cartoon versions of some of these characters.

Originally, the case came with a fragile, molded plastic tray that was segmented to hold certain figures If memory serves there were four slots for Minibot Cars, there were a few more slots for the regular Autobot cars, a couple for accessories, and two big ones, which would fit fit Soundwave. For my purposes, the tray was way too limiting, and I was able to get one without the tray for less. That’s a win-win.

The case worked out really well for my modern Deluxes. I was able to fit sixteen of them in there along with their accessories, and a couple of the Legends style Minibots. It’s a cool way to store the figures, and easier for me to get at the ones I want than if they were just piled in a small tote.

My case also had a sad little G1 Bumblebee rattling around inside of it. The dealer pretended he didn’t know it was in there, and tried to get a couple more bucks out of me for it, but when I told him he could keep it, he tossed it in anyway. He’s actually in ok shape, although he does have some chrome wear to the area around his head and some cracks to one of his tires. Damn, I completely forgot these little guys had real rubber tires!

Oct 21 2012

Transformers Prime: Bulkhead by Hasbro

Primus knows, I haven’t been the biggest champion of any of the modern Transformers TV series, but I’ll happily admit right now that I dig Bulkhead. While most of the characters we see in Transformers are all reworks from the G1 days, Bulkhead is one of the few new characters that has survived to be re-imagined across two otherwise unrelated series. I find him to be a really endearing character, good comic relief, and one that deserves to be added to the catalog of Transformers that will continue to get recycled through future reboots. As a result, I was pretty excited to pick up the TF: Prime Bulkhead, especially since none of the TF: Animated versions have found their way into my collection.

Transformers Prime… Voyager packaging… Yeah! It’s essentially the same thing we’ve seen with all the TF: Prime Voyagers. It’s very cool, Bulkhead is packaged in robot mode, and there’s a hole in the window that lets you try the shitty light up Mech Tech style weapon. Let’s get back with tradition and look at Bulkhead’s vehicle mode first…

But, before we get to the figure, here’s a quick Public Service Announcement from FigureFan. Kids, when your new toy comes in a window box, take a look at it before you buy it. I didn’t, and my Bulkhead has scratches all over his hood. Granted, the figure was in robot mode in the package, but I still could have seen the scratches if I looked hard enough. I could take it back, but it was the only Bulkhead they had, so I guess I’ll consider it the ultra-rare “Battle Damaged” Bulkhead and live with it.

In alt mode, Bulkhead is a big military vehicle. I’d say he was supposed to be some kind of jeep, but he’s obviously a lot bigger than the other cars, so I’m going to go with some kind of variation on a Hummer. His vehicle mode is solid enough and while I’m not a big fan of painted windows, at least the front windshield is transparent. There are some seams on the sides, but for the most part they synch up with the doors so they aren’t terribly unsightly. A socket on the roof allows you to plug in his battle ram, or if you want your toy to look terrible, you can plug in the light up Mech Tech thingy. All in all he’s a solid toy and rolls along great.

There are some shell-former shenanigans going on with Bulkhead’s transformation, but it’s mostly with the arms. It took me a couple of tries to get them locked down just right. Apart from that, he’s got a pretty cool and innovative design that gets him into and out of his robot mode.

I am a big fan of Bulkhead’s robot mode. In fact, the only thing that bothers me about it is that he seems a little short when standing alongside the Deluxe figures. That having been said everything else is pure love. Bulkhead’s TV design has some wonky proportions, but this figure makes them work really well. I love the way the doors form extra armor plates on his chest and the Autobot symbol on his shoulder armor is a nice touch too, especially since it isn’t upside down like Starscream’s Decepticon shoulder emblem. Bulkhead’s headsculpt is right on the mark and his jaw is even a little articulated. I’ve heard tales of him being really hollow and awkward in the torso, but I don’t see it at all, and even when viewed from the back he’s got a nice squared off backpack with wings.

Oh yeah, there’s one other design element that I wanted to nitpick. Hey, Hasbro, what is up with the faked out wheels on the robots lately? I noticed these when I featured Cliffjumper and here they are again. Right on the outside of Bulkhead’s legs you can see clearly sculpted tires that have been left unpainted. Bulkhead is a four-wheeled vehicle and all of his actual wheels are accounted for, so I have no idea why Hasbro is doing this, but little things like this have a habit of eating away at me when I’m trying to sleep.

Besides the light up weapon that I already tossed in a bin, Bulkhead comes with his battle ram, which can be attached to either arm. I really wish he had some kind of serviceable spiked ball attachment for his hand. Alas, Hasbro incorporated that into the Mech Tech weapon, making Bulkhead the only figure which is really affected by the fact that I throw those out.

Yes sir, Bulkhead is a great figure. I like him so much, that I might be persuaded to pick up one that isn’t scratched to shit if I happen to find him again. He’s loads of fun to play around with in both robot and vehicle modes and he really captures everything I love about the character. But best of all, he brings me one bot closer to completing my core Autobot team. I’ve yet to find Arcee on the pegs, but I’m thinking I’ll have to bite the bullet and snag her online.

And that leaves me with just one more TF: Prime figure to look at, but I’m going to have to come back to him. Schedules must be kept and the trains must run on time. Tomorrow I’ll start looking at some more of the odds and ends that I picked up from the Toy Show a few weeks back.  

A rather large box from Matty Collector landed on my stoop yesterday afternoon, so there’s going to be a little change of plan.

I’m bumping my original plans for this week back so I can check out the new goodies. I’ll kick things off tomorrow with DC Club Infinite Earth’s monthly figure, Poison Ivy. Then we’ll get into the Voltron goodness with Keith on Tuesday and the Black Lion on Wednesday. Thursday I’ll bring it back to DC with the quarterly oversized figure, Elasti-Girl, and the we’ll cap off the week with a look at the big boy himself, Voltron in all his ginormous glory.

Oct 20 2012

Transformers Prime: Dreadwing by Hasbro

The TF: Prime pegs here may be crammed with nothing but Bumblebees and Cliffjumpers, but the Voyagers have certainly been arriving in a timely manner. Much to my wallet’s chagrin, I was able to find both Bulkhead and Dreadwing sitting on the shelf the other day and I couldn’t help but grab them both up. Dreadwing seems to be the hotter of the two, and definitely the one I was most anticipating, so let’s check him out, and we’ll look at Bulkhead tomorrow.

Dreadwing comes in the same style window box that we saw with Megsy, Prime, and Screamer. He’s packaged in his robot mode, which is a great choice on Hasbro’s part. I defy any Transformer collector to see this guy standing there in the box and not have to take him home. The window has the “Try Me” hole for the token shitty Mech Tech style weapon. The fact that it lights up just draws attention to how horrible it looks and we will speak no more of it. The side panel features a little bio on Dreadwing and the back shows him in both his modes. I know, I usually do the alt mode first, but the transformation and alt mode really irk me, so I’m going to get all the gushing out of the way first.

In robot mode, Dreadwing is an example of all that is right with this line. He’s a satisfying size for a Voyager class figure and I’m pretty sure he’s meant to be based on the Skyquake character in the TV show. The coloring is a pleasing mix of deep blue and light grey with some translucent yellow parts peppered about, including the cockpit on his chest. The head sculpt is fantastic and the face is beautifully painted gold with red eyes. He’s a great mix of organic curves and jagged plates and I really dig the way his jet exhaust hangs off his back like a jetpack. Dreadwing also comes with a sword, which he can hold in either hand.

So about the transformation… I love figuring out the transformations on these guys by myself, and that’s a good thing because Dreadwing’s instructions not only suck, they are downright misleading. The changeover to jet mode features a lot of stuff moving at once, but for the most part it is surprisingly intuitive, until you get to the part with the tail section. Looking at it, it’s easy to see what’s supposed to happen and where everything pegs in, but when I set that up Dreadwing’s hands were just hanging there about half an inch past the exhaust of the jet. “That can’t be right,” says I, “Let’s consult the instructions.” No, really… I said that! Sure enough, the instructions indicate I’m doing it right, but it doesn’t show the robot hands hanging off the back. I had to go online and find some gallery pics to show me that the instructions are pretty damned misleading, and that I was doing it right all along. While omitted from the instruction illustrations, and carefully hidden in the product pics with tricky perspectives, the hands really do hang off the back end of the jet. I call bullshit, Hasbro!

Overall the jet mode looks pretty great from almost every angle, just don’t look at the back. Sure, there’s a lot of robot kibble on the undercarriage, but you know what? That’s a fact of life for most Transformer jets, and I’m fine with that. The blue and gold deco looks very nice and really reminds me of Revenge of the Fallen Dirge.  The wings on his Decepticon insignia are a nice touch that reminds me of the Cybertron Defense emblems used for some of the Autobots in the Cybertron line. Dreadwing holds together very well and sits nicely, provided you can get his front landing gear down, I had quite a struggle with it. Nonetheless, those hands hanging off the back are just terrible. It really feels like they either just ran out of money while engineering the toy, or they got that far and just said, screw it… that’s good enough. Either way, it’s one of the most overt examples of rampant robot kibble in a Voyager alt mode that I can remember since Hasbro just left poor Energon Ironhide’s head sitting right on top of his roof.

I think the biggest shame with Dreadwing is that 99 percent of this figure is so damn good that those hands hanging off the jet mode just makes me weep. Even if you could just pull them off, it would have been an improvement. Ultimately, the good still outweighs the bad here, and I say that mainly because I display my Transformers in their robot mode and damn if Dreadwing isn’t one great looking bot. Tomorrow, we’ll see how Bulkhead fares!

Oct 14 2012

Star Wars Power of the Force 2: Tattooine Skiff by Hasbro

As promised, it’s the second part of the weekend where I cross a long coveted toy off my list and add it to my collection. Can this thing possibly live up to nearly 30 years of expectations?

Wow, this thing comes in a pretty big box! One might say an unnecessarily big box, because about half of it is just for presentation. There’s a gigantic window to show off the Skiff, which is mounted against a cinematic backdrop, with a little pop-up Sarlacc on the bottom. Alas, it’s the shitty ret-conned Sarlacc that looks like Audrey 2 from “Little Shop of Horrors” and not the cool foam-core-sand- vagina used in the original movie. The included Luke Sywalker figure is posed standing at the bow of the Skiff with lightsaber drawn. The back of the box has some stills from the movie as well as a big photo of the toy to point out the various play features. The side panels show the scene from the movie recreated with figures, which is very cool.

If you’re a mint-in-box collector you probably love this packaging, if you’re not, then get ready to have some fun getting the toy out of the package. The Skiff is held on with super, double-enforced zip-ties, which are wrapped inside some kind of impervious, clear zip-tie sleeve. I can’t recall ever encountering these things before, but they’re the kind of things the FBI would use to take Hannibal Lecter into custody. They are literally thicker and stronger than a lot of parts on the actual toy. I had to pull out the heavy duty wire cutters to get the toy free without risk to the railings. When you do finally get the Skiff out, you find that the Luke figure is secured to the railing with a cthuluesque web of twist-ties that cannot be cut because they’re so tightly woven around the frail plastic railings. I’m not going to crap all over what is a beautiful presentation on Hasbro’s part, but I would have preferred the toy come in just a regular box so I could pop it back in to store it, not to mention avoid having to deal with all the twist-ties. Still, it was damn tempting to try to save the box, but space concerns being what they are, I had little choice but to pitch it.

 

Once the Skiff was out of package, freed of all its tethers and in hand, I have to say I really am thrilled with this thing. Make no mistake, it’s a very simple toy, with no electronic lights or sounds or any of that jazz. There are a few play gimmicks, and we’ll get to those in a bit, but none of them mar the toy as a display piece. Sure, the Skiff is not exactly to scale, but it’s certainly close enough that you can load it up with all the key figures from the scene. I can comfortably fit three of my Skiff Guards as well as Luke, Han and Chewie. The sculpt and coloring on the toy are both particularly well done. There’s a lot of black, weathered paint laid over the greenish plastic as well as some silver metal rubbing. You also get a few well-placed laser blasts sculpted into the mold. For a late 90’s toy, refurbished using the mold of a mid 80’s toy, Hasbro did a very nice job on this piece. It not only holds up well, but I’d say it even surpasses some of the Star Wars toys we’ve seen in recent years.

My favorite action feature on the Skiff is the retractable landing gear. Not only does this feature allow you to stand it so it’s “hovering” off the ground, but it’s so well integrated into the toy and allows the vehicle to stand quite well. A clear stand would have been cool, but I appreciate that the legs are molded to look like actual landing gear the vehicle might have and they are actually deployed by one of the levers at the pilot’s station! I can’t think of too many Star Wars toys where the vehicle’s actual controls perform a function on the toy. The other lever deploys the gangplank, which once extended all the way drops the tip down to eject the prisoner. I could have done without the floppy end gimmick, but otherwise I really dig the gangplank.

Other action features include levers on the back that turn the two rudders in unison, two drop down side railings, and a spring-loaded deck plate that actually ejects a figure off of the Skiff. There are also some holes in the center block on the deck, which I presume are for storing the guards’ force pikes. Overall, I think my only gripe here is that I would have liked some more foot pegs on the deck. Thankfully, I have an neigh endless supply of blue tack.

As mentioned, the Skiff comes with an “Exclusive Luke Skywalker” figure, which is appropriately enough, the version of him in his black Jedi garb. The figure seems to be actually kit-bashed from parts, both old and new. I’m pretty sure this was the only version of Jedi Luke with the blaster damage to his right hand, although it’s just a black paint smudge. Besides the normal five points of articulation, Luke also has hinged knees and a swivel cut in his right wrist! The POTF2 line was not always kind to Luke in terms of likenesses, but this one really isn’t too bad. In fact, the only real problem with him is his bizarre, giraffe neck. I thought that design might have been to accommodate a plastic cloak on another release, but I’m not sure. He comes with his green lightsaber, which makes me wish I had saved the clear rubber band, because he doesn’t hang on to it very well.

 

 

It’s hard for a toy to live up to more than 25 years of nostalgia and anticipation, but the Skiff here didn’t disappoint me… not one bit. It was pretty easy to find one, once I decided to buy it and all told with shipping this little beauty set me back only $40. Not bad at all for something I’ve wanted for so long. It may be crazy to compare this simple little toy to Hasbro’s more recent Millennium Falcon, AT-AT, or even the new Slave-1, but it goes to show you that certain toys can still get me all hot and bothered over the Star Wars franchise, no matter how many times I try to swear off collecting it. Hmm… I never did own one of those B-Wing fighters… I always wanted one of those…

Oct 13 2012

Star Wars Power of the Force 2: Jabba’s Skiff Guards by Hasbro

As promised, let’s take a gander at the Skiff Guards, Klaatu, Barada and Nikto. If your sci-fi chops don’t extend beyond Star Wars, then you are missing the in joke that “Klaatu Barada Nikto” was a phrase from the 1951 classic “The Day The Earth Stood Still.” Klaatu was the alien visitor’s name and the entirety of the phrase kept Gort from going apeshit and destroying the world. In a nice little nod back to the film, the phrase was also used in “Army of Darkness” as an incantation to safely recover The Necronomicon. Of course, for our purposes here, these are the names given to three of Jabba’s pirate-like cronies, which happen to make up the figures in this Cinema Scene 3-pack.

The first time I owned two of these characters in figure form was as a kid when my parents got me the Jabba’s Dungeon playset. It was a remold of the far more fun Droid Factory playset. As the name suggests, Jabba’s Dungeon was basically a place where kids could torture their cute and innocent droid figures. It even came with a branding iron on the end of the crane! The playset itself was pretty useless, but I loved it because it came with two of the Skiff Guards, Klaatu and Nikto, and one of Jabba’s torture droids, 8D8. The playset was also available with three different figures: Barada (the other Skiff Guard), Amanaman, and EV-9D9. Alas, splitting up the guards like that meant that I never did have Barada as a kid. [Sorry for all the rambling, folks. Star Wars toys hold a shit-ton of nostalgia for me. This is another reason why I haven’t done a lot of Star Wars content! –FF]

Here are the guys in all their packaged glory. Hasbro’s Cinema Scenes were a really great marketing idea. As the name suggests, you get three figures from a scene in the movie, packaged against a backdrop to make a little in-package diorama. You also got a plastic figure stand, with a slot so you could clip out the backdrop and slide it into the stand to display your figures. Like most POTF2 figures, nowadays you can get these sets for next to nothing, and I still have a lot of them still in the package. In fact, this may be the first time I’ve ever opened one! The first thing I learned is to have clippers ready, because the figures are secured with a diabolical network of twist-ties around their feet and torsos. Sadly, by securing the figures to the display backdrop, it means there are some unsightly holes in it. Fortunately, the figures stand right in front of them, so they aren’t all that obvious.

I like Barada the least of the trio. Maybe that’s because I didn’t have him as a kid and I’m not as nostalgic toward him. But, I’d like to think it’s more about his sculpt and paintwork. The paintwork on his face, hands, bandanna, and belt are all god-awful. It looks like Hasbro tried to get clever by using some kind of wash, but if that’s the case, it was a failed experiment. And why the hell is he wearing Han Solo’s pants? He does have a nice jaunty, swashbuckler shirt and some cool gear sculpted onto him. He also comes with a kick-ass blaster. God, I loved the POTF2 weapons. They were so big and elaborate and I’ve since loaned a lot of them out to my army of 5-inch Character Options Sontarans.

Next up is Nikto, which is a pretty solid figure. The head sculpt is nice, complete with head wrap, and features some pretty good paintwork, as all his little horn thingies are painted black. He’s got quilted vest and nice silver arm bracers. I especially like the fact that his arms are sculpted to hold his vibro-axe across his chest, much like Weequay.

Of all three figures, Klaatu is the one that most resembles his original vintage counterpart. The outfit is almost exactly the same. It’s just a ruffled white jumpsuit with a cross-checked skirt and a little armor reinforcement to his right shoulder and neck. The head sculpt is especially detailed and I really like his skull cap. Klaatu can hold his vibro-axe in either hand. Of course, Klaatu was also released carded as a much snazzier figure, complete with a fuzzy loin cloth. I think that one is still my favorite.


Ah, but wait. I’m still going to want a Weequay to add to the display, so let’s dig him out of the tote and tear him open too.

I feel sorry for collectors trying to keep track of packaged POTF2 figures because there are just so many different states out there. You’ve got your orange cards, your green cards, your Freeze Frames… and when all is said and done you can still go to your average flea market and pick them out of a bin for a couple bucks each. Well, this Weequay came on a green card and has a snazzy and shimmery photo of him beside the bubble. The package identifies him as “Skiff Guard” but I could have sworn he was once “Skiff Master.” Oh, I forgot, Weequay is a race and not a dude. Yeah, as a kid, I thought Weequay was the guy’s name. The package also points out that he comes with a Force Pike and a Blaster. Oh, shit, I’ve been calling those things vibro-axes. My bad. Too much Knights of the Old Republic, I guess.

Weequay is the man! He was a favorite figure of mine back in the ROTJ heyday. Why? I have no idea, but my Star Wars addled adolescent mind raised him to the unsubstantiated coolness factor of Boba Fettic proportions. In my mind he survived the battle on Tatooine stole himself a fricken Tie Fighter and pursued Han and Luke across the galaxy looking for revenge. Yeah, try to top that nonsense! Unless you write for Marvel Comics, you can’t!

The POTF2 version of Weequay has actually changed very little from his vintage figure days. He’s a tad more pre-posed here, and there’s a little more detail in his ponytail, but his outfit hasn’t changed much at all and his arms are still molded to hold his vibro-axe force pike across his chest so he can use it to bump fools onto the gangplank. He also has some paint-spray dirt around the bottoms of his trousers. In addition to his force pike, Weequay comes with a blaster. He can hold it, but because his arms are designed specifically to hold his other weapon, he can’t really wield it very well. Still, an extra blaster! Who’s going to complain about that? Not me! I basically adore this figure, probably more than anyone should adore any POTF2 figure. It captures all the right points of the original vintage release.

Oh yeah, all of the figures today have the same six points of articulation. The heads turn, the arms rotate at the shoulders, the legs rotate at the hips, and they swivel at the waist. That’s a whole point more than the vintage figures had!

I’m perfectly happy with this entourage of figures for my Skiff display, but I’d be lying if I’m not tempted to pick up a vintage set and maybe even the current molds from Hasbro’s Vintage Collection. See? It’s spreading. The darkness is spreading. No… I will not again embrace the Star Wars collecting addiction. I’m going to go get me some methadone and I’ll be back tomorrow to check out the Skiff.