Tag Archives: hasbro

Aug 6 2011

Marvel Universe: Gladiator by Hasbro

Finally, a serious gaping hole in my Marvel Universe collection has been filled. Yes, Gladiator has arrived! That’s called sarcasm, folks, as I was not exactly jonesing for this figure’s release. I mean, really Hasbro? If you’re going to release one of the Shi’ar, you think Gladiator deserved to be first over Lady Deathbird? Ooook. The fact is, the only appearance of Gladiator that I can remember from my funny books is when he went apeshit and punched the USS Enterprise in that priceless Star Trek and X-Men crossover. Now, granted that was a pretty epic panel, but still. Nonetheless, the figure looked really nice hanging on the peg, so I tossed him in the cart as well as some other MU figures. Let’s check him out.

I still enjoy the Marvel Universe cards, although Gladiator’s character art is a tad bit understated. He should have been caught in mid scream as if about to punch his way off the card. Instead, he appears to be just staring off with a curious gaze of slight approval. He’s from one of the more recent waves, so the deco has gone back to SHIELD. He fills out the bubble nicely, especially with his cape. The package notes that he comes with his personalized figure stand, but keep in mind, this is a newer release and the Top Secret files are no longer included with the figures. Boo!

And yes, I do like this figure quite a bit. The body is a pretty standard MU buck relying on paint apps to make up Gladiator’s costume, but the metallic blue and red look very nice and he’s got a bit of wash to bring out the sculpt in his muscles. Unlike some of my past MU figures, the paint lines on Gladiator are very clean. The head sculpt is excellent, much better than a number of MU figures that come to mind, again with nice clean paint and a pronounced mohawk sculpted on. The cape and collar are all sculpted in one piece from softer rubbery plastic and just hangs on over his shoulders. If you pop off the figure’s head you can easily remove it so that Gladiator can lay it aside and issue forth some intergalactic ass kickings without being burdened by the extra garment.

Gladiator features standard MU male articulation. You get a ball jointed neck; Universal movement in the shoulders, hips, and ankles; Swivel cuts in the biceps and wrists; And that great universal joint in the torso. For some reason I was expecting the new swivel cuts in the thighs, but nope. I guess he isn’t new enough.

All in all, Gladiator is some really nice work on Hasbro’s part. The figure is a great mix of sculpt and paint to make a figure that really pops. The MU line has been touch and go in the past, no doubt, but it has certainly been heading in the right direction and drastically improving with every wave. Gladiator is a fine example of that. He may not be tops on a lot of collectors’ lists, but he’s still well worth picking up if you have an open mind and are hankering for another MU release.

Aug 4 2011

Transformers Human Alliance: Sandstorm and Private Dedcliff by Hasbro

I look at a ton of Transformers on Figurefan, but some of you may have noticed that I haven’t looked at any of the Human Alliance series. It’s not that I don’t admire the line, but paying $30 for a figure I already own in a slightly different scale is too rich for my blood. Well, with Dark of the Moon, Hasbro introduced a new class assortment to the line. These new bots fall somewhere between a Scout and a Deluxe in terms of size and complexity and still includes the little human figure. I’m still not overly excited about this line, but I decided to give it a try with Sandstorm.

The figures come on a standard Dark of the Moon style cardback, which means the deco looks awesome. The layout of the package is very similar to the Power Core Combiner Commander two-packs. Sandstorm is in his robot mode and Dedcliff is mounted beside him. Yep, just like the PCC Commander and his Minicon. As always, let’s start with Sandstorm’s vehicle mode. The package is still schilling the whole MechTech gimmick, which I find a bit odd, since there is no MechTech weapon included. As always, let’s start with the vehicle mode…

Sandstorm is a military style dunebuggy. Just think of a one-seater GI Joe Awe Striker, and you’ve got the idea. In fact, it reminds me a lot of the single seater dunebuggy released in the 2.5″ Sigma Six line. It’s a fairly ugly vehicle, but I think the design serves it well because it is a military vehicle and not intended to look pretty. It is a very solid little toy and it rolls along great. I’m fairly impressed that the rollbar locks together nicely and the weapon has a clip that allows you to place it in a number of different points on the toy. Sandstorm’s seat has a peg on the back, which fits into the socket on Dedcliff’s back to keep him seated upright nicely. There’s plenty to like here, but if you compare him to, let’s say, Revenge of the Fallen Dune Runner, Sandstorm lacks a lot of that dunebuggy’s intricate sculpted detail, despite being a larger figure.

The Dedcliff figure is very impressive for such a tiny little guy and if you don’t like the name Dedcliff, just call him Duke because he’s the spitting image. The sculpt is very detailed and the paintwork is excellent. He even has a tiny Autobot emblem stamped on his shoulder! Compared to the older Human Alliance humans, this guy is a huge leap. His articulation is also remarkable. You get a rotating head, ball joints in the shoulders and hips, and hinges/swivels in the knees. Considering there’s plenty of larger figures on the market with less articulation, I’ve got no complaints about this little dude. If Hasbro had delivered the 2.5″ Sigma Six figures with this kind of sculpt and poseability, I think that line would have been a lot less despised. Either way, Hasbro went above and beyond with this tiny figures.

Transforming Sandstorm is easy enough and his robot mode looks great. He does have some rollbar kibble hanging off his back, but at least the ones that hang over his shoulder looks like they actually surve a purpose in blocking melee attacks ot his head. His articulation is excellent for a figure in his size class, with ball joints in his neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, and ankles, along with hinged knees. The figure features a lot of playability and the gun for his dunebuggy mode doubles as a handgun for his robot mode.

I’m generally surprised at how impressed I am with this set, considering I was not all that excited about picking it up. Sandstorm is a great Transformer and doesn’t sacrifice anything to satisfy the Human Alliance scale and gimmick. And as dumb as it sounds, I’m blown away by the quality of the Dedcliff figure. I should note here that Sandstorm also has a third battle platform alt mode, which I didn’t think worth showing. Either way, though, this is a remarkable little set, loads of fun to play with, and at $10 it actually feels like a bargain. Yep, I’ll certainly be buying some more of these.

Jul 30 2011

Transformers Dark of the Moon: Thundercracker (Deluxe) by Hasbro

[Phew, it’s been a long week of DC Universe Classics goodness. I’ve got a shit ton of other toys piling up, but I need a day off, so I’m just checking in today with a quickie. No, I haven’t forgot that I still need to do the two All Stars bonus figures that I got with Wave 16. I’m going to break up the DCUC run for the next three or four days with some other stuff, and then I’ll get back to take a look at All Stars Joker and Deathstroke sometime around the middle of next week. For reals! -FF.]

So… Deluxe Class Thundercracker from Dark of the Moon seemed like a good choice for a quickie, since he’s just a repaint of the Starscream figure that I reviewed a week or so back, we can take a quick look at him without doing the mold a disservice.

Bam! Dark of the Moon Deluxe packaging with the figure carded in his jet mode. The package deco still looks great. I found Thundercracker’s bio blurb a little funny as it basically says he’s Starscream’s protege. Seems as though Starscream has taken him under his wing. HA! Let’s move on…

It’s the same awesome Deluxe sized F-22 Raptor that we saw with Starscream, but the new paintjob really pops compared to Starscream’s cyber-tats. Besides the nice deep blue of G1 Thundercracker, he’s got some gorgeous red and silver striping on the wings and rear fins. The grey dorsal hinge is a little unsightly, but apart from that I couldn’t be happier with this figure’s jet mode aesthetics. On the downside, the plates on my figure don’t line up all that well, certainly not as well as on my Starscream.
I’m still impressed with the transformation on this mold and how solid the resulting robot mode is. Granted, if you don’t like Starscream’s movie design, I doubt this repaint will win you over. As I said in the Starscream review, this design has grown a lot on me and I think it looks great in the new color scheme. I’m particularly fond of the black paint job on the head.

Hasbro went an interesting route with Thundercracker’s MechTech weapons. They included one of Starscream’s Null Rays, which can peg in under the wing or onto his arm, but without the other half, it really isn’t a MechTech weapon anymore, is it? He does, however come with a repaint of my favorite MechTech weapon so far: Roadbuster’s chainsaw. I’ll grant you it doesn’t serve much purpose to have a chainsaw mounted under the wing of a Raptor, but it sure works great on his arm in robot mode.

Thundercracker is either an easy pick-up or an easy pass, depending on your take on the Deluxe Starscream mold. I was impressed with it and found it to be a big improvement over the old Voyager mold in terms of stability and playability. What’s more, Hasbro put some real love into Thundercracker’s deco. A figure that could have easily been a quick and dirty repaint cash grab, turned out to be a really snazzy looking repaint cash grab. And doesn’t that mean we all win?

Jul 22 2011

Transformers Dark of the Moon: Roadbuster (Deluxe) by Hasbro

If you read my look at Topspin from a little while back, than you know I had mixed feelings about the first of the Deluxe Class Wreckers I purchased. I had high hopes for this next one I picked up, Roadbuster. I loved Topspin’s auto mode but I had a few issues with his robot mode. Well, it turns out the opposite is true with Roadbuster. Let’s check him out.

The Deluxe Class packaging is getting pretty familiar now. Not much new to say here. Roadbuster comes carded in his auto mode with his MechTech weapon mounted beside him. The back panel has the Tech Specs and the bio blurb. I didn’t see it on Topspin’s but there’s a NASCAR hologram sticker on the back of the Roadbuster’s package. I’m pretty sure it was on Topspin’s card too, but I just failed to notice it. The back panel has the obligatory photos of the figure in both robot and auto mode. Hey, check out the auto mode photo that has the MechTech weapon plugged into the socket on the car’s side panel, because we’ll be coming back to that later.

Topspin’s auto mode was armored and bristling with weapons and he looked absolutely badass. Roadbuster’s auto mode doesn’t have all the cool weapons and armor and is just a straight forward race car. The paint job and sponsor logos make for a nice looking racecar, but there’s some noticeable and unsightly slop along the white paint lines. Interestingly, the peg sockets on the side panels and the roof have covers that drop down when you peg the weapon into it. It’s a cool way to hide the unsightly peg socket, but it does result in some MechTech weapon problems, which I’ll talk about in a little bit.

On the flipside, Roadbuster’s robot design is simply awesome. I adore the proportions on this guy and the way his wheels wind up on his shoulders and hips. All in all, he has a much cleaner look than his Wrecker comrade, Topspin. Instead of the bulky car pieces hanging off the shoulder, Roadbuster just has a pair of rocket launcher pods positioned over each shoulder. Much better. I also like Roadbuster’s headsculpt quite a bit. It’s a big improvement over Topspin’s failed effort at a Cyber-Mullet. The only downside here is that the grey component of Roadbuster’s torso is left unpainted, bare grey plastic and it looks pretty bland. Some paint apps or even a general wash would have really helped this figure look loads better.

So how’s Roadbuster’s MechTech? Ok, the weapon itself is pretty damn cool. Y ou get a blaster that converts into a friggin battle chainsaw. Unfortunately, my gripe with most of the MechTech weapons holds true here: You still can’t lock the weapon into its converted chainsaw mode and that just sucks. The other problem with Roadbuster’s MechTech system are the covered peg ports I mentinoed earlier. The weapon pegs into the roof just fine, but the peg ports on the side panels will only grant access when the figure is in robot mode. Not only does this really limit the versatility of the MechTech weapon, but it makes the artwork on the package deliberately misleading.

No doubt, Roadbuster has a few stumbling points, but nothing to ruin the figure for me. In fact, this guy is one of my favorite Deluxe Class robots to come out of the movie lines. The snafu with the MechTech ports on the side of the car is what bugs me the most. Sure, these little inconsistencies will occasionally happen when going from production to final piece, but understanding that doesn’t make me any happier about it. I would absolutely love to see a non-NASCAR repaint of this figure, or even get to see it turn up later as a Decepticon.

Jul 21 2011

Marvel Universe: Bucky by Hasbro

In case you haven’t noticed Captain America is all the rage these days, what with the movie coming out and the pegs in the toy asisles adorned with figures from the new movie. I only have one of Cap’s movie figures, Red Skull, but as expected there’s some overlap between Hasbro’s Marvel Universe line and the line of figures based on the new movie. This allows me to be topical while checking out Bucky, one of those Marvel Universe figures that I never got around to looking at here on FigureFan. So let’s see how the MU version of Cap’s stalwart comrade in arms turned out.

Bucky comes on the standard MU packaging. His assortment is part of the Dark Reign style releases with HAMMER themed packages, as opposed to the SHIELD logo. Bucky’s artwork is pretty good and dominates the upper portion of the card. The figure comes posed with one of his Tommy Guns in his hand. As always the presentation here is solid and despite being an opener, I sure wouldn’t mind having a second run of some of these figures carded to hang on my wall.

Overall I’m happy with Hasbro’s sculpt, although there are a few nits to pick. The detail on Bucky’s tunic is good and includes the sculpted brass buttons on the front, his high collar, and his belt with pouches. The head sculpt isn’t one of MU’s better examples, but it does work. I’m trying to remind myself that this is a somewhat earlier figure. The hair is decently sculpted and the mask looks fine, but I would have liked it if the rest of the face sculpt wasn’t so soft. One complaint I do have, however, is the figure looks rather top heavy and the belt looks kind of chunky. Bucky is by no means a bad looking figure, but proportionally he just looks a little off.

You get standard MU style male articulation. This includes universal movement in the shoulders, hinged elbows and swivels in the biceps and wrists. He has universal movement in the hips, double hinged knees, and hinged ankles. His neck is ball jointed and he has universal movement in the waist.
Bucky comes with a fair amount of goodies. You get his Secret Documents, his personalized display stand and not one, but two Thompson submachine guns. I really like the guns. Yeah, they’re a little oversized, but the sculpts are excellent. I may even do a little paintwork on the socks if I get really bored one day. I was surprised that Hasbro included two of the guns with the figure, and he can hold them nicely in both hands. Chances are, though, one of these babies will go into my GI Joes’ armory.

No doubt, Bucky is a great and necessary addition to the MU lineup, especially for us Cap fans. I haven’t seen a Bucky figure in the new Captain America line yet, so it’s hard to say whether it will be an improvement on this figure or just a straight on repack. Either way, chances are I’ll settle for this one as the Bucky for my Marvel 3 3/4″ collection.

Jul 20 2011

Marvel Universe: Grey Hulk by Hasbro

Some of the figures that have been hanging out in the limbo of my In Box are there because I just don’t have a lot to say about him. Say, hello to Grey Hulk. I have never been a big fan of The Hulk in any shape or form. He certainly can’t hold my interest as a main character, but I don’t mind him when he’s attached to The Avengers in a supporting role. Still, I had no problem picking up a regular flavor Hulk for my Marvel Universe collection. Grey Hulk, on the other hand? The only reason I own this figure is because he was included in a case assortment that I purchased to get at a bunch of other figures. On the plus side, I haven’t looked at this sculpt yet, so let’s see if I can pad this out to a full length post.

Grey Hulk is from an older wave assortment before Norm Osborne took over the Hasbro factory and started stamping his HAMMER logo on all the packages. As such, the bubble insert brandishes the SHIELD emblem. The artwork is decent and Hulk certainly fills out the card, but there’s not much else to say here.

Surprise! Grey Hulk is just a repaint of the green single carded Hulk, and that’s a shame because the sculpt was pretty crappy in the first place. I passed on the original single carded Hulk in favor of the version from the Secret Wars comic pack. Sure, that one isn’t perfect either, but it’s a breath of fresh air compared to this sculpt. The body is fine, actually its the same as the Secret Wars figure’s body, but let’s look at the head. With the figure on the card, you can make an easy comparison to the decent character artwork and the figure under the bubble, and see that Hasbro turned The Hulk into a pinhead. The face looks emaciated and his flat head gives me a Frankenstein’s monster vibe. It looks more like this should be zombie hulk. Grey Hulk’s got blue pants and a decent wash over the rest of the figure to give him some depth to the sculpt.

As probably expected, Grey Hulk is light on the accessories. All he comes with is his envelope of Secret Documents from the Fury Files.

So, yeah, I really hate this figure. I’ll grant you it doesn’t help that I had no interest in a Grey Hulk to begin with, but let’s face it, I’ve been known to fall in love with figures based on characters I didn’t care about or even know, so I’m not giving Grey Hulk any free passes. I mean, was anyone really satisfied with this sculpt? If a non-Hulk fan like me hates it so much, I would imagine the real Hulk fanboys are livid. On the upside, it was worth getting saddled with him to be able to pick up the other figures in this assortment that I needed.