Tag Archives: hasbro

Feb 23 2012

Marvel Universe: Psylocke by Hasbro

I had other plans for today but seeing as how I’m gearing up for a very special Marvel Legends Week (starting next week… spoilers!) I wanted to get these two Marvel Universe figures out of the way sooner rather than later so that y’all aren’t all too marveled out. I’m opting not to pick up this wave in its entirety. In fact, the only figures I am picking up are the two ladies in the assortment: Psylocke and Storm. We’ll check out Psylocke today and Storm tomorrow.

Looks like the standard Marvel Universe packaging. But wait! We’ve got some new design elements here. The front of the package now boasts a “Collectible Comic Shot” where the SHIELD logo used to be, but more on that in a minute. My favorite change to the package features Deadpool on the cardback making a random wise-ass comment for each figure in the wave. In this case: “What am I? Leftovers?” No doubt referring to the fact that he hasn’t seen a single carded release since the Wolverine Origins line. I love it. Sorry, but to me Deadpool is like bacon, in that he makes everything better. Ok, except for Wolverine: Origins. Moving on… Psylocke’s character art on the front of the card is downright terrible. Not sure what happened here, but I’m just not digging it.
The “Collectible Comic Shot” has to be one of the most worthless ideas ever because all it is is a tiny little cardboard insert with some miniscule character art on it. WTF Hasbro? Is this supposed to make up for the fact that you aren’t including figure stands in the packages anymore? I seriously don’t care about the lack of stands because I prefer to use generic clear stands, but to call attention to these cards as if they’re some kind of cool collectible is ridiculous.
Moving on to the figure, Psylocke is basically one big kitbash and while part of me thinks the character deserves better, ultimately I think the final result works pretty well. You get the same generic female MU body that was used for Ms. Marvel, so Psylocke doesn’t benefit from any of the newer points of articulation. And speaking of Ms Marvel, you also get a straight reuse of the modern Ms Marvel’s red sash. The only thing new here is the head, which at first I thought was going to be a resculpt of Jean Gray, but happily that’s not the case. The paintwork is overall good on my figure. There’s not much slop or bleeding as is sometimes the case with the MU line. However, the paint used for her lower legs doesn’t look the same as the rest of her costume. Close, but not quite.
Psylocke comes with a couple of translucent purple accessories. First you get a web of psychic energy that clips nicely onto her wrists. The effect is pretty good, and let’s be honest, its a huge plus that we just didn’t get that stupid energy funnel that comes with every other Iron Man and Spider-Man figure in the Marvel Universe. She also comes with an energy katana construct, which she can hold nicely in her left hand.
Articulation includes a ball jointed neck, ball joints in the shoulders and hips, hinges in the elbows, knees, and ankle, and a ball joint in the torso. She has serviceable poseability, but I really wish Hasbro would get more consistant in using the extra articulation that they’ve been adding to the line every now and again.
Psylocke seems to be one of the harder figures in this wave to find. I wound up picking her up online for about $15 with shipping. Its kind of steep for what she is, but considering I’m only picking up two figures in this assortment, I was willing to splurge rather than worry about missing out on her. She’s not going to blow anyone away, and you diehard Psylocke fans would probably be justified in complaining about the reuse of parts, but in the end I’m happy with how she turned out.
Feb 21 2012

Kre-O Transformers: Bumblebee by Hasbro, Part 2

Back again, with the second part of my look at Kre-O Bumblebee. So, enough with admiring the car mode. Time to bust it down and build the robot. Looking at Bumblebee’s robot mode from the boxart it seemed to use a lot of the pre-assembled car bits, so when I broke down the car mode, I left some parts together, particularly the front bumper and the doors. I’m not sure if that helped or hurt in the end, but breaking these models down after you build them is a pain in the arse. Once again, I recommend having a razor blade (be careful!) or some thin utensil that you can use to pry the stubborn bricks apart.

Once built, Bumblebee’s robot mode is absolutely fantastic. The final build in my hand looks tons better than what’s on the front of the box. His proportions are excellent and the car kibble is all strategically placed very well. Keep in mind there are A LOT of parts left over after his robot mode is built and as with Megatron, I tried to incorporate some of the more car kibbly bits onto him to make the transforming illusion look more plausible. For example, none of the wheel wells  are used on the official build, whereas I found places to put them on his legs, as it just makes sense that they would be visible on his robot mode if he were a real Transformer. There’s no doubt Bumblebee is heavily influenced by the Bayformer version, but he’s still got a bit more blocky and appealing G1 feel to me. The head certainly helps as its sculpted to look just like his G1 animated version.
Bumblebee sports excellent articulation with ball joints in his neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles. He’s a solid enough figure, and holds positions very nicely. But he is still a building set so if you play around with him long enough, bits are bound to fall off.
I bought this set at the regular retail price of $24.99. Now, wait. Megatron was $29.99, but he had 25 less pieces. That’s weird. Either way, you can’t really touch a Lego set with 300+ pieces at this price range, let alone a set that is designed to build two different things, so once again I’m going to have to say these Kre-O sets are an amazing deal.  I’m every bit as impressed with Bumblebee as I was Megatron, and I’m anxious to check out the next one. I’m going to take a break to look at a few other things and then in a few days, we’ll check out Kre-O Sideswipe.
Feb 20 2012

Kre-O Transformers: Bumblebee by Hasbro, Part 1

As promised, I’m back with more Kre-O! Yes, I was so impressed with the Megatron set, I ordered a couple more and Bumblebee came in yesterday. Was Megatron a one-shot wonder? Are all Kre-O sets as cool as him? Let’s find out as we check out the Autobots spunky little scout-slash-warrior, Bumblebee.

There’s the box and once again, Lego, take notes. It easily opens up like a briefcase giving you a great place to store the pieces and a nice makeshift tray to try to keep control over all the tiny pieces. Inside the box you get an instruction booklet, a sticker sheet, and a bunch of baggies containing a total of 335 bricks. You also get three Kreon minifigs, each individually bagged. Once again the baggies aren’t numbered so you need to spill all those bitches into the box to begin your build. Here’s something a little different, you get a plastic parts tree with all sorts of weapons and equipment for the Kreons. Interesting. What are we starting with? The Kreons, of course!
You get three Kreons: Two are adorable little Transformers and one is a generic human driver. At first, I thought he was going to be Spike or Sam, but nope, he’s just called “Driver”. The Transformers are Bumblebee and Red Alert and both little guys capture the G1 Transformer designs pretty well. Bumblebee is my favorite of the two. I love his little G1 horns!
I really need to start timing myself on these builds because I have no idea how long it took me to put together Bumblebee’s sportscar mode. It was definitely more than an hour, but some of that time was spent trying to keep my goddamn cat out of the parts box. [Pro-Tip: Cats are counter-productive when it comes to Legos and even not-Legos! -FF] And yes, as expected, Bumblebee is a yellow sportscar with some black detailing. He’s not quite a Camero, but definitely closer to the Bayformer alt mode than anything else we’ve seen Bumblebee turn into.
Sadly, I don’t think Bumblebee’s alt mode looks nearly as good as Megatron’s did, but in fairness, the truck cab is more boxy and easier to do with bricks. I’ll also cut it some slack as these Kre-O sets seem to avoid cheating by using a lot of specialized pieces. I think the biggest problem with the way the car mode looks lies with the roof, which would have benefited by using smoother, more rounder pieces, like the hood, rather than just being a slab. On the other hand, its not that bad for a Lego-style car. Its pretty big and very solid and the interior is nicely detailed and can fit two Kreons. I also like the optional missile launcher that can be attached to the top. The fugly roof can also be easily removed to better place the Kreons in the seats, and you can even leave it off altogether to give Bumblebee a cool convertible treatment, which looks quite good. By the way, isn’t it really bizarre that you can have Kreon Bumblebee driving himself? What kind of twisted universe is this?
There were a fair number of pieces left over after the sportscar is built. These are mostly joints and stuff used for the robot mode. I was able to fit nearly all the extra parts on Megsy’s cab mode, but there’s nowhere to put them on Bumblebee here. I did manage to use one of the robot joints for a cool trailer hitch, though.
So all in all, this is set is pretty good. I don’t know that I would recommend it on the sportscar alone, so give me a day to break it down and build the robot mode and we’ll see what happens, mm’kay?
Feb 17 2012

Kre-O Transformers: Megatron by Hasbro, Part 2

Last time, after a brief interlude to gush over Ninja Turtles, we checked out the Megatron Kre-O set in his vehicle mode. It turned out to be a pretty amazing set, so surely Megsy’s robot mode can’t be any good, can it? Well, I’m here to tell you it ain’t too shabby. Let’s have a looksy…

Once again, keep in mind that these sets do not transform. You basically build either the vehicle or the robot and then tear it all apart and build the other. Some may take issue with this approach, but I rather like it a lot. Hasbro’s last experiments with transforming building sets (see Built to Rule… on second thought, don’t) were pretty shitty. Besides, who hasn’t finished building a Lego set and lamented that it was all done? With Kre-O’s it really is like getting two sets in one, and I found building Megatron’s robot mode, just as fun and challenging as building his truck cab mode. The only downside was ripping apart the cab. I’ve built my fair share of Lego sets, but apart from taking a few parts off of the finished toys for storage, I’ve never broken one down completely until I had to do so with this Kre-O set. It was handy to have a razorblade handy to separate some of the more stubborn bricks. It was also handy to have the briefcase style box so that when pieces went flying, they usually wound up trapped in the box and not somewhere under the desk.
And there’s Megatron’s robot mode. First off, he’s huge, measuring in at about ten inches tall. Secondly, I really like the way the designers made him look like he could transform, even though he doesn’t. His obvious truck parts are positioned in a pretty logical manner. I will point out that some of his car parts weren’t included in the building instructions, so rather than leave them off, which felt like a cheat, I incorporated as many of them as I could into the robot, and I think it worked out rather well. There are, however, a few rather conspicuous pieces that I couldn’t find a good place for, like the windshields.
From a design standpoint, Megatron is a somewhat fresh take on the character. He definitely sports some of Dark of the Moon’s characteristics, but at the same time, he has a more G1 feel to me as well. I really like the head sculpt, the way the gas tanks sit on top of his backpack. and the way the front bumper sits on his chest. He also wears the prison from his cab mode as a backpack so he can still carry around prisoners. Megatron features a shoulder mounted missile launcher, with clips on his back to hold the spare missile. The missiles are the pieces used for the exhaust pipes in the truck mode and they flick-fire just like in Lego sets. The only thing I’m really missing here is the lack of some kind of arm cannon. To me, Megs just isn’t Megs without a giant fusion cannon on his right arm. I like to compensate by taking the missile launcher off his shoulder and attaching it to his right arm. I don’t tend to stray far from the instructions when building my Lego sets, but I’ve had a lot of fun tinkering with customizing this Kre-O set.
As an action figure, Megatron is fairly solid, although fiddle about with him enough and bits are bound to fall off. He has excellent articulation, with ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles. He also swivels at the wrists and each of his eight fingers are articulated at the base. He stands very well and can hold a lot of poses, although if you give him too wide a stance, his hip joints tend to buckle under the weight and he’ll wind up doing the splits. Still, all in all he’s fun to play around with and he works really well if you want to have him fighting the Earth Defense Forces from Lego’s Alien Conquest series or attacking one of the many buildings from Lego City. I’m actually tempted to start collecting a lot more Lego City sets just to give my Kre-O Transformers a place to fight with collateral damage.
So, let’s talk value. The Megatron set comes with four Kreon minifigs, 310 pieces, and I got him at regular retail price at Walmart for $29.99. To compare, the last Lego set I featured here, UFO Abduction from the Alien Conquest series, was also $29.99 but only had 225 pieces. That makes Megatron a pretty good value considering you’re getting almost 100 more bricks and one extra minifig. And that’s not even considering the fact that this set gives you two toys to build. The quality is just as good as Lego and whle the instructions may frustrate every now and then, it makes for a good challenge. I’m so sold on these Kre-O’s I’ve already ordered two more sets, so expect to see more featured here in the next week or so.
Feb 16 2012

Kre-O Transformers: Megatron by Hasbro, Part 1

I’ve been putting this off for a while. Dipping my toe into the pool of Transformers Kre-O. I’ve been waffling back and forth, but I knew that sooner or later I was going to buy one of these sets and see what they’re all about. Well, yesterday was that day, as I finally picked up the Kre-O version of Megatron. As it turns out building this set was a lot more involved than I had expected, and it is technically two, two, TWO sets in one, so I’ve opted to break down this feature into two parts. Today we’ll check out the packaging and the Kreons and Megatron’s alt mode and tomorrow we’ll see how he looks in robot form. I had some high hopes for these Kre-O toys, for a number of reasons, so let’s see how my first Kre-O adventure turned out…

Oh god, I love this package. It’s a standard looking box, but it has a pop up handle and its simply taped on the sides, so you can open it up like a cardboard briefcase and put everything back inside when you’re done. Cool and functional! Take a look at these boxes, Lego, because its so much nicer to open one of these rather than having to chew through the side of one of your boxes. Inside you get a meaty instruction book, a sheet of stickers, and a bunch of baggies that contain the 310 bricks. Each of the Kreons are individual baggied too. As we do with Lego, let’s start with the minifigs… er, um… Kreons!
So, the Kreons are indeed basically minifigs and they come in two types. You get some humans that can intereact with the Transformers Kre-O toys and you get some that are made to look like little super-deformed versions of G1 Transformers themselves. The Megatron set comes with two of the humans: A specialist and a cop; And two Transformers: Megatron and Shockwave. I absolutely love the Transformer Kreons, especially Megatron as he comes with a huge fusion cannon and an evil smirk. These little guys are just fun and highly collectible. I’m tempted to say Hasbro should be blind-bagging them, but right now I think the strategy is to use them as an incentive to buy the sets. The humans are ok, although I’m not sure what the Specialist is supposed to be all about. Nonetheless it is really cool to have little figures in scale with the Transformers.
Laying aside the Kreons, let’s move on to the pile of bits that will eventually become Megatron. I found building this set to be a lot more challenging than any Lego set I’ve done so far. I think part of the reason is that the instructions aren’t quite as clear as the ones in the Lego sets. There were a few times where I couldn’t quite figure out where the selected bricks were supposed to go until a little bit of time spent studying the picture. Another reason may have been the fact that the majority of this set is comprised of just three different color bricks: Black, grey and light grey, and there’s a fair number of the same bricks in different colors. It also doesn’t help that none of the baggies are numbered as with Lego sets, which means you basically have to dump all 310 pieces together and hunt for each piece in a much larger pile. Good thing you can use the box as a dump for all the pieces. I’m not complaining, mind you, I actually enjoyed the challenge and the fact that it took me so long to complete.                                    
The instructions first show the build to truck mode and then, starting from scratch again, show the build to robot mode. Yes, unlike those shitty Built To Rule sets Hasbro put out back in the Armada days, these Kre-O sets don’t transform, rather you build each version. It’s a cool idea that gives a lot more build value out of the sets, but it is kind of a bittersweet moment when you finish the first mode and realize its time to tear it apart to build the second.
Megatron’s alt mode is a truck cab similar to the one seen in Dark of the Moon. Typically with Lego sets, I tend to find the final result a lot smaller than I was expecting. That’s certainly not the case with Megatron here. The cab is huge and can seat two minifigs. It rolls along on its six wheels rather well and looks fantastic. Both doors open, the sideview mirrors are hinged, as are the claws on the front of the bumper. Megatron even has a little prison cell in the back of his cab. There are actually a number of left over pieces that are used for the robot and not the cab mode, but I managed to work everything onto my finished cab by getting a little creative, or just putting them on underneath where they won’t show. I think my only complaint here is that Lego vehicles are usually designed so the top can easily come off to seat minifigs inside. Metagron’s cab is so intricate that you really can’t do that and you’re left tucking them in from the side, or just building the cab around whichever Kreon you want in there.

So far, I’m really sold on Kre-O. This was a really fun and challenging build that creates a huge, fun toy, and I’ve only seen and done half of what this set has to offer. I love the fact that you can even put Lego minifigs in the cab, and if I compare it to the Lego City tractor trailer I own, it’s just massive by comparison. Tomorrow I’ll be back to take a look at Megatron’s robot mode. Until then… I’ve got some building to do!
Feb 15 2012

Transformers Reveal The Shield: Special Ops Jazz by Hasbro

It seems like forever since I last looked at any Transformers. That’s primarily due to the fact that the Dark of the Moon toys didn’t hold my interest and Hasbro’s got nothing else on the pegs or shelves that I want. [Except for those Kre-O sets, and we’ll likely be looking at one of those before the end of the week. -FF] Anyway, thanks to the Ross Toy Graveyard I was able to get almost all the Reveal The Shield figures I needed to complete my Classics/Generations/Universe collection. That is all except Jazz and finally one of the online retailers I deal with regularly was able to get me a pretty decent price on him and so here we are today…

Bidding a fond farewell to the Reveal The Shield packaging, as this should be the last time we ever see it here. Truth be told, I was never all that fond of it. Its basically the Generations cardback with a less Tranformer-like orange color to the card rather than the more traditional red. Jazz comes packaged in his vehicle mode with his gun mounted beside him. Note the name, “Special Ops Jazz.” This isn’t some kind of special repaint or variant, but rather just one of those cases where Hasbro lost the rights to use the name Jazz by itself so their lawyers told them they’d be safe if they tacked on “Special Ops” before the name. The bubble also sports the ubiquitous Hub network sticker to remind you that there’s a current Transformers series running, but doesn’t mention that Hasbro continues to make it next to impossible for you to buy any toys based on it, unless you fancy paying about forty bucks for a Deluxe on the Interwebs. End bitter rant now.
Out of the package, Jazz’s car mode is indeed quite nice and very reminiscent of his original G1 Porsche mode. He is cast in that white plastic that makes me afraid that it will yellow over time, but it’ll probably last longer than my liver, so who’s worried? His color scheme includes blue and red striping up the middle and sides and his racing number four on the hood and doors. The Rub Sign is on the roof of the car and mine doesn’t work worth a damn. God, how I hate these things.
Jazz is really easy to transform and in robot mode he looks outstanding. I’m not one of those collectors that hate on the Prowl/Bluestreak/Smokescreen mold from Classics, but even I have to admit that Jazz looks tons better and doesn’t suffer from problems like the door panels falling off nearly every time in mid conversion. Yeah, I realize that G1 Jazz used a different mold as the G1 versions of those three, but the robot modes are so similar, the comparison is still valid in my book. Either way, great job on this one, Hasbro!
Jazz does have one cool little gimmick and that’s the speakers that deploy from behind his car door “wings”. I love that Hasbro included this as it really gives the toy a lot of personality and its a nice fanwank back to the original Sunbow cartoon. They’re ball jointed so you can position them in all manner of ways.
And so Jazz rounds out my collection of updated G1 Autobots quite nicely. Sure there’s still Skids and Trailbreaker and Hoist and more Minibots to make, but based on what we heard at Toy Fair this year, it looks like we’ll have to wait until 2013 for those. I was able to get Jazz for $17 shipped, which is about what I would have paid if I would have ordered him off of Hasbro’s own Toyshop, assuming he was ever actually available. Sure, its a lot more pricey than the other Reveal The Shield figures, but then I was able to find all of those on clearance at Ross. You can’t win them all.
Feb 3 2012

Marvel Universe: Masterwork Galactus Figure by Hasbro

It’s taken me a long time to finally get my hands on this figure. I shyed away from ordering it online because it was so friggin expensive to ship. I had it in my hands at Toys R Us a whole bunch of times, but I always opted to pick up four or five figures that I needed over this one, single beauty. And then, naturally, when I was finally ready to buy him, he was gone. I hunted him at three TRUs and he had already been replaced by The Sentinal figures and he was starting to go for a premium online. Thankfully, an online retailer that I’ve done business with a bunch of times was able to set me up with one at the original retail price and didn’t beat me up on shipping too badly either.

So the other day the postman dropped him off outside my door and when I went to retrieve him I was pretty taken back by the sheer weight of the package. Yeah, like I said, I had him in my hands at the store a couple of times and still every time I pick him up I’m impressed by the heft on this figure. He was shipped to me in the original Hasbro casepack, which holds two, which means it must have required super strength just to get it from the stockroom to the shelves. Yeah, I’m exaggerating a bit, but it is a weighty figure. In a perfect world, dealers selling this toy would have to mail you the Silver Surfer figure a few days ahead of time so that he could herald the coming of Galactus to your home. But, alas, no.
The packaging is a thing of beauty. It’s a massive slab of a box littered with gorgeous Marvel artwork. Lift up the flap and you can see Galactus and the tiny, by comparison, Silver Surfer in all their splendor. Naturally, there’s a “Try Me” hole so you can hear the mighty Galactus threaten and taunt you without even having to take him out of the package. Honestly, the speakers are mostly located on the back of the toy, so he does sound rather muffled when he’s still boxed up, so let’s get this sum’bitch out and witness him in all his glory. The box is very collector friendly and you can slide the whole tray right out of the package. A bunch of twisty-tie untying later and I had a figure that is not big enough to devour worlds, but big enough to send FigureFeline running for his goddamn life. Seriously, he was terrified of this thing for a while and then was just content to nest in the tray that I discarded on the floor.
Let’s get the Silver Surfer out of the way first. He’s a great figure, but let’s face it, by definition there isn’t much to him. He features a pretty standard and early version of the MU buck painted with a nice, shiny silver. There are some black paint apps around his eyes, but that’s about it. I actually picked up this figure carded a while back but opted to leave him in package because I knew one day I would have a loose one when I bought his oversized cosmic master. The surfboard isn’t the same shade of silver, but rather more like a matte grey. It has two pegs for Norrin to stand on, which brings us to Surfer’s articulation…
Norrin sports the older degree of articulation from the MU line. He has ball joints in the neck, shoulders and hips, double hinges in the knees, hinges in the elbows and ankles, and swivels in the biceps and forearms. He also sports that ball joint in the torso. The problem is that his lack of swivels in the legs and rocker hinges in the ankles makes it a little tough to get him to peg onto the board with both feet. Peg one foot in and the other one wants to pop out. You can still get him on some nice poses with the board, but he always seems just a bit too precariously balanced.
As for Galactus… holy shit. To place him in proper scale, your average MU figure comes up just to the top of his boot. But besides being a whopping 19-inches tall and weighing a ton, he features a really amazing sculpt, particularly in his bucket of a head. The helmet is magnificent with translucent bits that show off the light up features nicely. The small portion of his exposed face is also beautifully sculpted with an appropriately smug impression. I particularly love the detail work on all the bits coming off his helmet around his chin and the sides of his face. Stunning! The rest of the body is packed with little striping or interlacing bands that give the figure a lot of depth, and the chestpiece and skirt are both sculpted separately in softer plastic. All the details on the figure are sculpted in, rather than rely solely on the paintwork as Hasbro often does with the regular MU figures.
Of course, Galactus is an electronic figure. Press the central disc on his chest and his eys light up, as do all the clear bits on his helmet, and he speaks one of his 10 phrases, which include….
  • You serve me now!
  • Who is so ignorant as to confront Galactus?
  • You will witness the end, for I am power incarnate!
  • Behold! The world eating machine!
  • I hunger!
  • Know me mortal. Know me and know fear!
  • So speaks Galactus!
  • Who dares defy Galactus?
  • I am the devourer of worlds!
  • Tremble at the might of The Power Cosmic!
Sometimes electronic features can hinder a figure, but I don’t think that’s the case here. Galactus speaks a nice smattering of phrases and the voicework is particularly well done. Bravo, Hasbro!
Ah, but Galactus may be a brick in size and weight, but not in articulation. In fact, he actually has better articulation than Silver Surfer and many of the older MU figures. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, wrists, and hips, double hinges in the elbows and knees, hinged ankles, and swivels in the biceps and forearms. What’s more the joints are all nice and strong to support his bulk and allow him to retain the poses you put him in.
It takes balls to put out a toy at mass retail and refer to it as a “Masterwork Figure.” You’re setting expectations pretty high, and yet I really think Hasbro stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park with this one. I’m sure few Marvel collectors ever expected a better Galactus figure than the Marvel Legends Build-A-Figure, but there’s no doubt in my mind that Hasbro delivered it here. The sculpt, the coloring, and the sheer size do this magnificently terrifying character justice. Now granted, he set me back $70 when you factor in shipping, and I still think he was well worth it, but if you happened to not hesitate like me and got him at retail at more like $50-60 than I think you really got a deal. Galactus is an awesome figure and a great centerpiece to any Marvel Universe collection.
Feb 2 2012

Marvel Universe: Cable by Hasbro

Holy crap, I’ve been trying to track down Marvel Universe’s Cable figure for ages now without having to pay a premium online. In the end, I sort of caved and wound up getting him off of Amazon without getting beaten up too badly in my wallet. But, honestly, if I knew just how great this figure was going to be once I got him in hand, I would have been a lot more willing to pay a premium.

Standard Marvel Universe package with some really kick ass character art on the card. Between his sheer size and his embarrassment of accessories, Cable really fills out the bubble beautifully. As with the newer figures, you get a standard, personalized figure stand.
And there’s Cable, folks, and he is one awesome figure. In a line where we’re used to getting the same standard buck over and over again with a few tweaks to the tooling and a painted costume, Cable shines like a rare gemstone. Starting with the head sculpt, as far as I’m concerned it is one of the best Hasbro has put out in this line to date. Cable’s grim, chisled look translated to this figure perfectly. His chest harness, shoulder armor, belt, and holster are all sculpted in separate pieces. Yes, you’ll note my figure is sans Baby Hope, and I’m perfectly fine with that. The holster holds his pistol perfectly and there’s a peg on the back of his harness to clip his rifle onto. When you look at all the beautiful work that went into this figure, it really puts a lot of the other figures in this line to shame.
Accessories aren’t usually the MU’s strong point either, but once again Cable flies in the face of convention by coming packed out with his own little arsenal. You get his pistol, assault rifle and spear. The weapons are really nicely sculpted and as mentioned you can store both of his firearms on his person.
Cable features the more modern level of MU articulation. You get the ball jointed neck, with an additional hinge so he can look up and down better. He has ball joints in his shoulders and hips, swivel cuts in his biceps, wrists and upper thighs, double hinges in his knees and hinges in his elbows and ankles. Cable also swivels at the waist and features the ball joint in the torso. Nice!
Yes, I gave a lot of the other MU figures a lot of shit over how great a figure Cable is, and I realize that’s not entirely fair. A lot of Marvel’s characters are little more than people in colored costumes and there simply isn’t a lot of unique sculpting needed. On the other hand, Cable has a really detailed and unique outfit that demanded a lot of new sculpting and Hasbro stepped up to the plate to deliver. All that having been said, Cable really stands out on my MU display shelf. He just looks so damn good that its almost like he’s a figure from a completely different line.
Jan 31 2012

Captain America: 6-inch Movie Captain America by Hasbro

Ok, so last time we looked at the 6-inch Movie Thor. He was a nice enough figure, but ultimately a little disappointing because of his limited articulation. Let’s see if we make out better with Captain America…

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Just like 6-inch Thor, this Cap figure’s packaging looks just like the carded 3 3/4-inch The First Avenger figures. There’s Hank Pym at work with his Pym Particles, again! I loved the movie packaging for the smaller Cap movie figures and it looks great here as well. Cap is packaged with his shield and pistol in hand and his machine gun off to the side. He really fills out the bubble nicely. Speaking of bubbles, there’s no “Walmart Exclusive” sticker on this bubble, but I’m pretty sure this was one too.
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Overall, I was pretty happy with Thor’s sculpt, but Captain America blows him away with the sheer amount of detail on his outfit. Every little crinkle, rumple and quilted texture is sculpted in wonderful detail here. I think the figure would have been better served with a less glossy look, but Cap’s outfit still looks amazing here. The sculpt also includes a working hoslter, which is always a nice touch in my book. I can’t say the head sculpt is terribly spot on, it seems rather soft, but its definitely serviceable.
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Unlike Movie Thor who could basically just stand there and look majestic, this 6-inch Cap has a buttload of articulation. You get a ball jointed neck, ball joints in the shoulders and hips, double hinges in the elbows and knees, hinges in the ankles, swivels in the biceps, wrists, and thighs, and that funky ball joint in the upper torso. I’m still not terribly pleased with the type of hip joints used here, but I’ll admit they work much better than Thor’s. Thankfully, Cap has no cape to interfere with his articulation, so this is one really poseable figure. He’s loads of fun to pick up and pose and that’s a big part of what I’m looking for in my action figures. I could barely come up with a few different snaps of Thor, but with Cap here, I couldn’t stop myself. I just kept shooting!
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Captain America comes with three accessories. His weapons include a Thompson Sub Machinegun and a .45 Automatic. The Thompson is a really nice sculpt and he looks great holding it. Plus, thanks to his excellent articulation, Cap can actually hold it in both hands for some great looking poses. The pistol is the weakest of the accessories. I don’t care for the sculpt too much as the trigger guard is overly circular and it’s bright silver. Still, it’s never a bad thing to have a spare gun and it can fit into his holster.
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And last but not least, you get Cap’s trusty shield. It’s cast in a rather soft plastic, but that doesn’t really hurt it much. Unlike the smaller Cap figures, this shield actually has the straps for his arm rather than just a peg and clip. Its a more authentic setup and the detailing on the reverse side looks mighty nice,  but sadly there’s no way to attach it to his back.
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So one gripe I have isn’t so much one with Cap himself, but when you put the two figures together (Cap and Thor) you find there’s quite a big difference in sizes. I realize that Thor is a big guy, and he should be bigger than Cap, but I don’t think he should be this much bigger. At the same time, when you take Cap and put him next to a DC Universe Classics figure he comes up pretty short too. That’s why I’m pointing to Cap’s size over Thors.
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I picked up Cap online for about $16 shipped, which is just about right for this class of figure. I don’t know how Cap is going to stack up to the upcoming Marvel Legends figures, but on his own, I think he’s an amazing figure. Great sculpt, great articulation, nice assortment of accessories, what more can you ask for, folks? If the 3 3/4-inch figures aren’t your thing, or you’re just looking for something bigger, this is a great figure for your collection.
Jan 30 2012

Thor: 6-inch Movie Thor by Hasbro

I have mixed feelings about the Marvel Legends line coming back this year, but one of the good things about it will be once again having Marvel figures in scale (more or less) with my DC Universe Classics figures. And therein lies the appeal of some of the movie-style 6-inch figures that Hasbro has been putting out as Walmart Exclusives, as well as the Toys R Us Exclusive 6-inch Iron Man figures. I actually had no idea the Thor and Captain America 6-inchers even existed until recently, but that’s to be expected since the Walmart here doesn’t sell their own exclusives! Seriously, Hasbro, is it asking too much that you award your Exclusives to retailers that will actually have your product on their planograms?

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The packaging looks like Hank Pym took the regular 3 3/4-inch Thor movie line package and blew it up using his Pym Particles. The card art is pretty cool with Thor gazing out in the upper right hand corner and the “Avengers Assemble!” emblem across from it. The bubble takes up a big part of the cardback, and rightly so since Thor is a pretty big figure and between his cape and hammer, he fills it out pretty nicely. The bubble features the “Only at Walmart” sticker, which probably should say “Only at Some Other Walmart, but not here!” to be more accurate.
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Out of the package, Thor is one good sized hunk of figure. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the sculpt, particularly where his costume is concerned. I like the look of his movie armor and this figure captures it really well, right down to the little details in his chainmail arm armor and even some little slashes in his legs. The cape even has that cool hovering effect as it comes off his shoulders. The 3 3/4-inch movie Thor that I own has a serious issue with the cape falling off when you so much as look at the figure. Hasbro went to the extreme other direction here by making the cape a permanent fixture on the figure, which causes other problems down the road. The head sculpt isn’t bad, but it’s not quite the leap from 3 3/4 to 6-inch that it should have been. I do, however, like the fact that he’s wearing his helmet, as it gives him more of an iconic look.
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The articulation is pretty close to what we got on the smaller figures. You have a ball jointed neck, ball jointed shoulders and hips, double hinges in the knees and elbows, hinged ankles, and swivels in the biceps, wrists, and thighs. Thor also has a ball joint in his torso. It all sounds good, but there’s a couple of problems here. First off, his hip joints are terrible because you really can’t position them in a way that gives you a lot of upper leg movement. Seriously, Hasbro, you need to stop it with this hip design, it sucks. Secondly, that permanent cape really hinders any leg articulation you do have. What you’re left with is a figure that has plenty of articulation on paper, but practically speaking, this guy is more like a statue with great arm articulation. I could barely get him into enough poses to warrant taking more than a couple pictures.

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Thor comes with his trusty hammer, Mjolnir, which is a nice piece, but is actually missing some of the sculpted runes on the smaller figure’s version. He also has a bit of difficulty holding it just right. You’ll notice that Thor’s left hand is in a circle grip, but that’s actually because this arm is shared between this Thor and Lord of Asgard Thor, which comes with a battle axe for his off-hand. His right hand grip is sculpted a lot looser and while he can cetainly hold Mjolnir, it usually wants to slide down or out of his hand.
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I think 6-inch Thor is a decent looking figure, but he certainly comes up disappointing in other areas. He does, however, fit in pretty well with the DCUC figures, which is pretty cool if I ever want to have him team up with Wonder Woman against Ares. I picked him up online for $16 shipped. He’s certainly worth that, but I’m hoping to have better luck with Hasbro’s 6-inch movie Captain America, which, coinicidentally, we’ll be checking out tomorrow!