Tag Archives: hasbro

Apr 6 2022

Marvel Legends (Colossus Wave): Iceman and Legion by Hasbro

I’m continuing to cut a swath through the endless backlog of Marvel Legends figures that are piled up around here, and I’m more than halfway through the Age of Apocalypse-inspired Colossus Wave. I’m tackling this wave in pairs, so I can get through it a bit faster, and that brings us to Iceman and Legion!

I didn’t really pair these together for any reason, other than I had four figures left, and it seemed like I should do Shadowcat and Colossus together. Or, you could say that I was going for a blue theme today. The fact is, I came into these two figures with very different expectations. One I was pretty excited for, and the other… well let’s check that one out first.

Yup, Iceman was the figure that I was least excited about in this assortment. No offense to Bobby Drake, but I just didn’t think that it could possibly be all that drastically different than the last one we got from the Juggernaut Wave. But when I got this guy in hand, I quickly changed my tune. Maybe I was just expecting a quick rehash of the previous release, but this is anything but that. Yes, a lot of the sculpt appears to be recycled, but Hasbro cast off the smooshy and chalky white plastic for this vibrant translucent blue that is absolutely gorgeous and does a great job replicating an ice effect, especially with the white dusting around the chest and shoulders.

The portrait is all new, including a new collar of jagged ice. The facial features are a bit amorphous, but he has clearly defined white eyes, and more jagged ice-spikes in place of his coif of hair. I dig the look here a lot, as it leans into a harder Bobby from his severe environment.

There are no surprises in the articulation, although he does lack the swivels in the lower legs that we often see in the modern Legends line. I would have liked to see the shoulder crunches here, but that might have been a bit too ambitious for the translucent plastic. Whatever the case, he’s fun to pose, especially without the soft hinges I had in my previous Bobby Drake figure.

Iceman doesn’t come with much in the way of accessories, although you do get a pair of enlarged ice claws, which are pretty cool additions to a beautiful figure. Let’s move on to Legion…

I was profoundly disappointed that Legion wasn’t included in the first Age of Apocalypse Wave, considering he is the reason for the season so to speak. But patience prevailed and all was forgiven when he turned up in this second assortment. X-Men certainly has its share of memorable and sympathetic characters, but I developed a particular connection with Legion over the years. I was particularly struck by the way Bill Sienkiewicz portrayed him in the panels, and later having a friend develop Schizophrenia helped to hammer home the heartbreak I would eventually associate with David. Hasbro did some inspired parts recycling here by borrowing the legs and bare feet from Shang-Chi. I wouldn’t have guessed that would work as well as it did. I really dig the blue they used for his outfit, and the extra shading really makes the figure pop.

I do like this head sculpt a lot. Yes, it’s pretty tame in some respects, but there was no way Hasbro could have recreated some of the more memorable and trippy depictions we’ve seen in the comic panels. The unmistakable stack of hair looks great, and I dig that they added that one little cowlick jutting out of the front. The smirk and the squint work for me, although the eyes could have been painted a bit sharper.

The articulation here is identical to what we just saw with Iceman, and that includes the omission of swivels in the lower legs. Legion also comes with two pairs of hands: One pair relaxed and one pair balled up into fists. I wouldn’t have considered that necessary, but it’s always nice to have options!

What a great pair of figures! Iceman just all out surprised me! It’s not that the regular Iceman release was a bad figure, but I just appreciate how Hasbro went all out to make this one so distinctive. As for Legion, I’ve been looking forward to getting him on the shelf for a while now and he definitely lived up to my expectations. On the whole, this has been a really solid assortment of well-executed characters, and I’m looking forward to checking out the last two next week with Shadowcat and the Colossus Build-A-Figure!

Apr 1 2022

Transformers Legacy: Skids by Hasbro

What’s this? A new main line of Transformers? Well, at least that’s my assumption, that Legacy will be replacing the Trilogy of Siege, Earthrise, and Kingdom as the new Generations line, and what better character to launch this Legacy series than… Oh, it’s Skids. Ok, then…

Well, I do like the art design! Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, I like it better than what we’ve been getting. The character art has been phenomenal, but some derivation of the boring black package with generic font Transformers running up the side has been with us for a while. This is colorful and trippy and while the Legacy logo doesn’t really scream Transformers brand to me, I can get behind this. Unfortunately, like the packaging we saw in my Buzzworthy Bumblebee review, Hasbro has stopped using plastic windows to save the planet and now leaves the toy exposed to the elements, as well as the sticky fingers of children. I would much rather they just use a completely enclosed box, but whatever. Let’s start with Skids alt mode.

Ah, the Honda City Turbo. It’s a car I never heard of before meeting Skids, and one that I haven’t heard of since. I should go on record here by saying that I’ve never been a fan of Skids. He was kind of a non-entity in the Sunbow cartoon. Indeed, off-hand I can only remember him being in two episodes: Quest for Survival and Triple Takeover. Both are great episodes, but certainly not because Skids happened to be in them. His toy was released too late to be part of the original Class of 84 Autobots, but too early to be included with the hot newness of the 1985 roster. I do distinctly remember finding him in Sears and my Dad saying, “oh, a new Transformer?” You want him? And I said nah, and wound up getting something else instead. At the time, there was just nothing about him that made him desirable to me and he was one of the only Autobots in the 1984-85 line up that I never owned.

Skids is a box on wheels, and certainly doesn’t share the stylish contours of the vintage Datsuns or sexy Lamborghinis. But with that being said, this is a fantastic new version of the original car form. Hasbro didn’t go too far off the page with this one, keeping the same midnight blue body and the same red and white striping on the sides. The front grill is gray with yellow headlamps, and there’s an Autobot emblem on the hood. The windshield and front windows are tinted blue, and you get lots of nice sculpted detail, including quad exhaust, a gas cap, and the screen on the front and back bumpers. The back is a little bland, but all in all, this is a nice alt mode for what it is.

Skids comes with a few weapons, and these can be attached using any of the three ports (one up top, and two on the sides), if you want to weaponize this mode.

Transforming Skids is pretty intuitive and the resulting robot looks surprisingly nice. The front bumper chest and door-wings has always been my favorite look for an Autobot, and Skids wears them quite well. Yeah, the chest is sharply squared off, and reminds me a bit of Armada Red Alert, but I ain’t hating it. The rest of the figure is nicely proportioned, and adds some more red to the deco, both down on his feet, and smack dab in the middle of his robot cod piece. And when viewed from behind, he’s all closed up and polished to a shine.

The head sculpt is very close to what I remember the original toy looking like, although I’m remembering him with yellow eyes instead of blue. The silver face paint looks sharp, and he wears a slight expression of disapproval on his lips, like he just saw that Spike’s report card and he got a C- in Algebra.

For an Autobot who’s primary function is a theoretician, Skids does come with a lot of weapons. You get two silver blasters, one is a stout single barrel pistol, and the other is a dual barreled gun, which can combine together to form a pretty formidable looking piece of hardware.

You also get what I think is supposed to be some kind of Energon Ax, which can also combine with the guns in a number of ways to make, well… I don’t know what. The ax replaces the rocket launcher that came with the original toy, and I’m cool with that!

The only reason I picked up Skids was because he was a new figure in a new line, and I was excited. But in reality, Legacy appears to just be an extension of what we’ve been getting in the War For Cybertron stuff, which is pretty much what I’m looking for in my Transformers anyway. Change the packaging all you want, Hasbro, but you’ve been batting a thousand with your Generations Transformers lately, and I don’t want to see that change. As for the figure itself, Skids if great! I’m legitimately surprised at how happy I am with this pick up, and he’s going to look fantastic on my Autobot shelf!

Mar 25 2022

Buzzworthy Bumblebee: Origin Bumblebee by Hasbro

While I have been focusing exclusively on the Generations-style stuff, Hasbro has been maintaining a few different lines of their profitable change-o-bots, one of those being this Buzzworthy Bumblebee series. I don’t get it. At first, I thought this was a tie-in for some streaming cartoon directed at the younger Transformers fans, but apparently that’s not the case. So, yeah… I really don’t get it and the stupid name inexplicably makes me angry, so I’ve been largely ignoring it. That is until I saw they did a version of Bumblebee based on his Cybertronian appearance in the first episode of the More Than Meets The Eye mini-series.

Well, the packaging design is nice! We get a bright yellow box, with the Transformers logo in black, and some various shots of Bumblebee on the side. What I don’t like here is the lack of a plastic window over the toy. Yes, I understand it’s an environmental thing, but I don’t like the idea that kids can come along and stick boogers on my action figure. DAMN KIDS… STAY OUT OF THE TOY AISLE… YOU THINK TOYS ARE FOR KIDS? GO PLAY YOUR FORTCRAFTING APP!!! I would much rather Hasbro just used a completely enclosed box. If I’m willing to spend $200 on a Titan Class figure and not get to see it until I open it, I think I’d be OK taking a gamble on a $20 Deluxe Class, knowing a kid didn’t touch it with his peanut butter fingers. But, enough complaining… let’s start with the alt mode!

Wow, this is a pretty cool little representation of Bumblebee’s Cybertron mode in the Sunbow style and one that I would have loved to have as a kid. It’s sleek and smooth, with stubby wings and a single blue windshield. It kind of looks like what you would get if you took his Earth mode, removed the wheels and squished it. Come to think of it, it was pretty damn convenient that Cybertron’s alt modes each had a suitable Earth mode counterpart.

Yes, it certainly has a mess of seams from the transformation, but that doesn’t bother me too much. Some of them mix well with the existing panel lines in the sculpt, and to be fair, the network of seams signify that a decent amount of thought and engineering went into this little toy, rather than just go for a lazy shell-former. And while you can’t tell yet, I was particularly impressed that the hood section with the Autobot emblem actually becomes the chest in robot mode, rather than being entirely faked out. Overall, the toy locks together pretty well, and I couldn’t be more pleased!

There are three sockets on the vehicle to plug weapons into, but since I’m a fan of symmetry, I just plugged Bumblebee’s gun into the one on the top.

And here he is in robot mode, and I have to say the transformation is pretty clever, fairly intuitive, and not at all too finicky. As I’m sure I’ve said before, my favorite thing to do with new Transformers is to try to figure them out without looking at the instructions. I wasn’t sure that was going to work here, but I made it happen. And yes, we have a fair amount of ugly kibble on those lower legs. I’m not a fan of it, but I can certainly understand that it had to go somewhere, and to be fair, that’s pretty much all of it. He wears the vehicle roof on his back, like a lot of Autobot cars, and just like in the cartoon, the chest piece is stylized to have the VW windows we’re used to seeing on Bumblebee, despite him not taking on that alt mode yet.

The head sculpt is excellent! I think I actually like this one a bit more than the one we got on the War For Cybertron figure, although that one isn’t too bad either. Here we get a little smirk and a fatter, more stylized helmet. This one just screams a little more Sunbow style to me!

Bumblebee comes with a pistol and a jetpack. The jetpack was initially shown off in silver, and I would have preferred it, but what we got is just black plastic. I guess it matches his deco better.

And you also get some of the conductor rods that Bumblebee and Wheeljack were scavenging in the beginning of the first episode. These are a pretty cool bonus accessory, although honestly it doesn’t look like there is enough energy in them to last a quartrex.

In terms of size, in robot mode this figure comes up at almost the exact same height as the War For Cybertron Volkswagen version. His vehicle mode, on the other hand, is a wee bit bigger.

All in all, this is a fun little figure, and one that I didn’t think we’d ever see realized. Despite all the Bumblebee figures Hasbro produces, he’s gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to Cybertron alt modes, and I’m glad they chose this one when they finally got around to doing one. I passed this one up on the pegs a couple times, before eventually grabbing him one day when I couldn’t find anything else and didn’t want to go home empty handed. And I’m mighty glad I did!

Mar 23 2022

Marvel Legends (Colossus Wave): Cyclops and Rogue by Hasbro

I’m in the process of making my way through the second Age of Apocalypse themed wave of Marvel Legends. So far I’ve checked out Magneto and Sabretooth, and today I’m doubling up with a look at Earth-295’s Cyclops and Rogue!

The figures feature some great character art on the side panels and the X-Men logo on the fronts. I think it would have been cool if they did a little more branding for Age of Apocalypse, but I throw these packages out anyway, so it’s no big deal. Each figure comes with one of Colossus’ limbs, and Rogue comes with an extra Colossus hand. Let’s start with Cyclops!

I think Cyclops’ AoA makeover is pretty fun. He’s no longer the clean-cut, straight-arrow, as his dystopian reality (and the glory of mid-90’s comic design) has taken its toll on him. The base figure here is quite simple, with generic blue buck, representing his sleeveless bodysuit. His arms are left bare, but he has some painted gloves to match his suit. The bulk of the new sculpting comes in his gold belt with shoulder armor strap, as well as the reinforced armor on his right glove, and a full armored sleeve on his left. The electric blue used for his suit is absolutely gorgeous and makes for a nice contrast with the gold used for his extra bits. I’m not usually a big fan of the type of gold plastic Hasbro used here, but they did add some scrapes and scuffs to the armor pieces, and I think it actually looks quite good.

The head sculpt is of course new, and like Magneto, Cyclops has trouble finding a barber in Earth-295. I’m actually getting a little bit of a Tommy Wiseau vibe off of this portrait, which is kind of awesome. The copious coif of brown hair is parted to the left to expose the additional gear attached to his visor, and the lone crimson lens covering his remaining eye, while it hangs over his missing peeper. A grim expression is chiseled into the exposed lower half of his face.

Cyclops features pretty standard articulation for this line. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, double-hinges in the elbows, and hinged pegs in the wrists. The legs are ball jointed in the hips, have swivels in the thighs and lower legs, double-hinges in the knees, and hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. You get a waist swivel and ab-crunch hinge in the torso, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. Cyclops comes equipped with a pair of fists, but sadly no other hands. Let’s move on to Rogue!

Wow, these colors! Despite her grim surroundings, Rogue went for some eye-assaulting colors on this outfit. You still get the usual yellow, but here it’s mixed with some dark green for her upper sleeves, reinforced panels on her hips and thighs, and electric green for the rest. She has a pair of yellow wrist bangles, and one wide yellow thigh strap on her right leg. We got a fair amount of new sculpting for this figure, mostly evident on her baggie upper sleeves, and her chunky yellow boots, complete with red oval fixtures on the fronts. Lastly, she has a loose green collar resting on her shoulders, with silver studs.

And then there’s the head sculpt. You know how some people say there are comics that are un-filmable? Well, this may be a case of a comic hairdo that’s un-sculptable. I’m sure Hasbro did their best, but this thing is just a mess. And it doesn’t help that they also had to give her a giraffe neck to make it work. The face itself is OK. She looks kind of gaunt next to the Earth-616 Rogue, but maybe it’s because she isn’t on a steady diet of Gambit’s gumbo.

Articulation here is in line with most of the Marvel ladies, which means you get rotating hinges in the elbows, instead of double-hinges and bicep swivels. You get a ball joint under the chest, instead of a waist swivel and ab-crunch hinge. And Rogue has swivels in the thighs, but not in the lower legs.

Unlike Cyclops, Rogue actually does come with a second set of hands, so you get fists, and the same style of splayed finger hands that we got with the previous Rogue.

Coming into this duo, I expected to like Rogue a lot, and not care for Scott Summers at all, but the truth turned out to be the opposite. I think Cyclops is a great looking figure with a style that really tickles my nostalgia for 90’s comic tropes. Rogue is by no means a terrible figure, but it’s just hard for me to get past that hair sculpt.

Mar 11 2022

Transformers (Studio Series 86): Gnaw by Hasbro

Hasbro has been turning out some excellent figures from the original Transformers animated movie through their Studio Series. I’ve covered quite a few of these, but I’ve still got some catching up to do, so today I’m going to have a look at Gnaw the Sharkticon!

It was about five years ago when we last saw Gnaw on the pegs, and that release was a tiny Legends Class, whereas now Gnaw is getting a proper Deluxe Class treatment. As always, the character art for the Studio Series packaging looks great, although I’m still not a fan of the black and red deco with the Transformers logo running up the side in sterile typeface. Also, it looks like something was gnaw-ing at the top of this box, which is fine because I’m about to shred it open. One thing I dig here is the Quintesson faction symbol next to Gnaw’s name. I’ve never noticed Hasbro using that piece of art before and It looks pretty badass! I think I’ll break tradition here and start with Gnaw’s robot mode.

In robot mode, the Sharkticons are the oompa loompas of the scrapyards. They’re short and stocky, and they don’t look too dangerous when they’re solo, but get a pack together and they just overwhelm. Hasbro did a beautiful job here updating the original toy, which has a robot mode that has not aged well. Here we see some great proportions, nice sculpted detail and beautiful colors. Hasbro borrowed the mauve and blue, dark gray and off-white from the original toy and streamlined it to resemble the animated model a lot more. Still, I would have loved to see some silver paint in place of the chrome from the original toy. At least on the teeth!

From the back, this guy is pretty damn tight, with his back dominated by a slab of black, almost like a turtle shell, and his tiny beastly arms hanging off his shoulders. All the beast mode kibble here is well placed, looking like they were style choices, rather than just some random place to tuck them. Everything about this bot mode feels polished to a fine shine. And for such a stocky guy, there’s some great articulation here, right down to the ankle tilts to keep his feet flat on the ground.

The head is a great homage to the original toy’s noggin, sporting a very distinctive “helmet” and a broad face. There’s a lot more detail here and a very displeased expression. I like to imagine that the Sharkticons are just in bad moods all the time because they’re always hungry for more Energon. I also love how well protected this guy’s head is. It’s right in the middle off a perimeter of teeth! I think the only thing I would have changed here would be to get some bright crimson paint on those eyes.

The Sharkticon comes with two weapons for his robot mode. The first is a rather large blaster rifle, which is almost as long as he is tall. The second is a spiked flail, which forms his tail in his beast mode. And speaking of which, let’s check out that beast mode!

I really like what we got here, even if it feels like the emphasis was on the robot mode over this one. The transformation is pretty simple, and yet rather clever at the same time, and everything locks together to make a solid little eating machine. The legs are set pretty far back, but they do a nice job balancing him upright. The hip joints have a habit of dropping him every now and then, but for the most part he stays standing, even without using his tail as a support.

The face is spot on perfect to me, with it’s metallic green bug yes and it’s giant maw of teeth. The jaw is hinged so he can bite, although there isn’t a whole lot of room inside that mouth. On that note, the robot head is unfortunately right inside, albeit facing down. You don’t really see his face, and I suppose the back of the head just works as some kind of weird bulbous tongue. Still, I would have liked to have seen it fold up inside the body, rather than be hanging out there. My only other nitpick is the arms. They swivel at the shoulders and have hinges in the elbows, which isn’t bad, but the shoulders should have been ball jointed.

As mentioned, the flail weapon becomes the tail, and you can also plug the rifle into the Sharkticon’s side to give him some extra firepower.

And here’s a couple comparison shots of the new Gnaw with the previous release. I seem to recall liking the Legends Gnaw when it came out, and to be honest I still do. As a Legends Class toy, it’s a lot simpler, but I think it did a fine job for what it is. And I think it displays really well with the new release, as some sort of less developed version of the Quintessons’ attack dogs.

Also, in keeping with the past Studio Series releases, the package does include a little display backdrop. I really love these, but if I’m being honest with myself, I probably won’t keep them. It would just take up way too much space to display each figure on one of these, and I don’t really want a whole tote full of them taking up more space in the closets.

The 86 movie Transformers figures hit the shelves at a time where I was still watching the cartoon and still taking note of the toys, but I wasn’t really playing with or buying them anymore. As a result, I never owned the original, and I’m happy to see this guy get such an gnawesome treatment. I grabbed up three of them to match the number of the Legends Class version I have, and I think that’ll probably be enough, although if I can find them at a good deal, I won’t say no to a couple more.

Mar 9 2022

Marvel Legends (Colossus Wave): Sabretooth by Hasbro

I had originally planned on tackling this second Age of Apocalypse-themed wave by doubling up each review, and that’s still the plan going forward. But I was at a loss for time last week, so I gave Magneto his own review, and now I’m doing the same for Sabretooth!

Magneto did not come with a BAF part, but Sabretooth comes with Colossus’ head and a second piece for the tie on his mask. I was surprised to see that this is the first time Sabretooth is getting the spotlight here on FFZ, as I never did get around to reviewing his release in the Apocalypse Wave, but I will bring in that figure for a comparison picture at the end.

Besides the new look, this Sabretooth is a helluva lot bulkier than the previous release. He’s a big boy with a decent mix of generic figure buck and some fresh sculpting for his costume. The torso, goin, and legs are all just standard muscle, cast in a light tan, which borderlines on orange. The boots and left gauntlet are dark brown, and all have some nice texturing to look like rough leather, and he has a simple belt to match. The right gauntlet has a matched hand, but the gauntlet sleeve is reinforced to look like metal, with heavy bolts and an extension to fortify the back of Sabretooth’s hand. The final piece of the costume includes a dark brown collar that extends out to his shoulders, and has silver bolts. Meanwhile, the arms are cast in flesh-tone plastic and have sculpted and painted hair, similar to what we’ve seen in some past Wolverine figures!

You get two head sculpts, and I really dig both of them a lot! It’s packed with personality. with a wonderful smirk, exposing just a hint of tooth. The eyes are deep set with big bushy eyebrows, and the well-detailed face is punctuated with a glorious butt-chin. The hair sculpt is also worthy of praise. It’s a separate sculpt, which gives it a clean hairline, parts around the ears, and there’s a plug in ponytail that can swivel.

The second portrait is all business, with his pupils gone, and his mouth drawn up into a big, toothy snarl. You also get a second ponytail to plug into the back of this head as well. That may seem like a no-brainer, but you never know with Hasbro these days. They could have opted to save a few pennies and only include one.

Articulation here is textbook for this bulkier Legends buck. That includes rotating hinges in the shoulders and hips, swivels in the biceps and thighs, hinged pegs for the wrists, hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles, double hinges in the knees, and elbows, a waist swivel, an ab crunch hinge, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. Sabretooth also includes two pairs of hands: One pair of fists, and one pair relaxed. There aren’t any other accessories here, but I can’t say he’s really missing any.

I love this look for Sabretooth. It’s clean and tight and just the right mix of generic buck and new sculpt. I also think he looks great on the bigger, bulkier body. And while he still looks pretty damn tough, he appropriately lacks the savage and terrifying expression of the Earth-616 Sabretooth. So far, this Wave is hitting it’s mark two-for-two. Next week, I’ll double up with a look at a couple more!

Mar 4 2022

Marvel Legends (Colossus Wave): Magneto by Hasbro

Oh boy, am I backlogged on my Marvel Legends reviews! I mean, I was already behind, and then I had three new waves arrive and I just keep getting in deeper and deeper! Today, I’m going to start in on the second Age of Apocalypse themed wave and I was going to double up, but I was so pressed for time that I wound up going solo with Magneto. I am going to try to check in again this weekend with Sabretooth and then double up the rest of the reviews for this assortment, so we’ll see how that goes!

It goes without saying, that I was a huge fan of the first Age of Apocalypse wave, and I was surprised to see Hasbro serve up a second so quickly. The first assortment had some heavy hitters and the amazing Sugar Man Build-A-Figure, so it’s going to be a tough act to follow. But, this second assortment is also bringing some major players and the Colossus BAF looks like he’s no slouch!

Magneto arrives sharing most of the body used for the Earth 616 Magneto packed in with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, and that’s to be expected. The red plastic is the same, and even the belt is lifted for this figure, albeit looking more purple than blue. You get some minor paint changes to the boots and gauntlets, his undies are now left red, and the addition of some shoulder pads, but that’s about it from the neck down. The cape is now red, and notably smaller. It still has the bolted neck ring, but that’s been reworked a bit, and this cape doesn’t hover over the shoulders like it did on the previous figure. All in all, this Magneto brings just enough new sculpting to the table to make him stand out.

The head sculpt is completely new, with Erik sporting his manly dystopian pigtails. The portrait packs a lot of personality, with Magneto’s struggle to lead The X-Men clearly taking its toll on him. The plastic coif is pretty magnificent too, and his braids are soft and bendy enough so as not to impede articulation too badly.

You also get a helmeted portrait, which sadly I am not nearly as impressed with. I like the styling well enough, but the paint application could have been a lot more precise. There’s some notable slop around the purple accents, and while on the subject of paint slop, the neck ring is pretty messy too. I also think the helmeted head looks too small, compared to the un-helmeted one. Not only does it look like his head might have shrunk a bit, but it seems unlikely he could get al that hair in there. There’s nothing terrible here, but enough issues to be disappointing.

Since we’ve seen this body many times, there are no real surprises when it comes to articulation, so I won’t run through it all. He does come with two sets of hands: One set of fists and one set of power-wielding hands!

And speaking of powers, you get two effect parts to wrap around his wrists or project from his hands. These are cast in the standard soft plastic with a translucent purple color.

Despite some issues, I really do like this figure, especially since I was sorry to see him omitted from the first wave. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, as Hasbro didn’t have to do a whole lot to convert their regular Magneto to the AoA version, so it’s fair to say he’s one of the budget saving figures in this assortment. But that having been said, he’s a great representation of the character’s look in the comic and a fine addition to my growing Age of Apocalypse shelf!

Feb 25 2022

Star Wars Vintage Collection (The Mandalorian): Beskar Armor Mandalorian and The Child by Hasbro

Well, I said I’d be back on Friday and here I am! I’m really pressed for time and I’m still trying to sort out a new photo studio, so I’m shooting guerilla style and not terribly happy with the results. After getting used to the same setup for a decade, it’s been tough adjusting, but I’m working on it. And the show must go on, so here we go! I’ve been strictly a carded collector of the Vintage Collection Mandalorian figures, but I bought doubles of Mando and The Child to open for my Razor Crest, because I didn’t want to open the ones that came with it. I don’t think I realized at the time that the Razor Crest Mando figure wasn’t carded, but let’s tear these open anyway and have a look! And YES! I do hope to get around to that look at the Razor Crest eventually!

I do love me some Vintage Collection cards, which is why I don’t buy all the TVC releases. I just can’t bring myself to open these unless I have doubles. Right now I’m only collecting The Mandalorian and Rogue One releases, so that helps a bit. These cards look great, and The Mandalorian title surrounded by the Star Wars silver border just looks perfect! Let’s start with Mando himself!

This is Mando after he got all blinged out with the mostly new Beskar armor and I have to say the detail in this little guy is pretty damn impressive. You get sculpted wrinkles in the jumpsuit and the armor pieces have a convincing depth to them that looks like they are actually being worn on top, even though they are all just part of the body sculpt. The silver paint here looks nice, and I dig the worn orange splatter and dull gray used for the old right thigh piece. He’s got weapon cartridges around his leg and on his shoulder strap, and a working holster for his pistol!

The cape is cast in plastic, but it still works well with the peg that attaches the rifle to his back. The rifle should be angled more across his back, but I found it works better almost straight up and down. The Razor Crest version has an actual soft goods cape, and we’ll see how that turned out when I check out that figure with the ship. Admittedly, the articulation on this smaller figure is a lot less satisfying than handling a Black Series version. The hips don’t have a lot of range of motion, and there’s a terrible pull on the left thigh swivel leaving an unsightly gap. Still, all in all I dig him.

I don’t have a whole lot to say about the helmet. It looks good and the paint is sharp as long as you don’t get in too close. Again, the quality of the silver they used here looks great and has just enough sheen to it. I also love the detail on the shoulder sigil.

The rifle is a solid sculpt, and the paint is pretty impressive for such a small accessory. Hasbro doesn’t always invest this level of paint operations on the 6-inch accessories, so this sure ain’t bad! Mando’s gun hand is mainly intended for the pistol, but with a little work, I was able to get it to work with the rifle.

The pistol fits snugly in the holster as well as in Mando’s right gun hand. There isn’t a lot to say about this accessory, other than it’s painted silver and has a pretty soft sculpt, but is certainly passable.

Finally, you get the jetpack, which is designed to peg into the back in a slot that is off-set to accommodate the cape. It stays on well, but I feel it works best without the cape. It doesn’t seem like a good idea to combine a jetpack and a cape anyway. You’re just asking to set yourself on fire! Let’s move on to Grogu!

OK, so this little guy doesn’t look like much when you punch in close like this, but it’s such an unbelievably tiny figure, that I have to give Hasbro props for doing such a nice job on him. He certainly looks a lot better in hand with the naked eye. And he actually has three points of articulation, with the arms ball jointed at the shoulders and the neck ball jointed as well. The arms do, however, pull out fairly easily and if they happen to hit the floor, they are so tiny it could be difficult to find them again. My only real complaint here is that they painted whites in his eyes, when they should really be all black.

The hover pram is also a nice little piece of kit. It has a clear plastic stand to create the hovering effect, and the blanket inside is sculpted with tiny rumples and even some sharp texturing. You also get a removable cover if you want to close it all the way up. Grogu fits in it quite well and looks great in there.

I don’t review a whole lot of 4-inch figures these days, so it’s fun to go back to them every now and again. To be honest, the only reason I collect any of these is either to keep them carded or to stock a specific vehicle or playset. I find that I just get a lot more enjoyment out of the 6-inch versions these days. They’re easier to handle, more fun to pose, and they tend to allow for more detail and better paint apps. With all that having been said, these two are pretty cool little figures, and I’ll work them into one of my displays somewhere.

Feb 21 2022

Marvel Legends: Skrull Army Builder by Hasbro!

Holy hell, I’m back! And I’m rolling out a Marvel Monday just for old time sake! But, it’s only temporary. I plan on getting back to Mythoss Mondays again in a couple of weeks. So, a couple of things before jumping in. First, thanks for your patience and your kind emails during my hiatus. It’s been a busy and mostly stressful couple of weeks with work and while the move has been going smoothly, I’ve still got a bit more to go. A lot of my collection is either set up or accessible, so I’ll do my best to generate some content and eventually get back to regular updates. I’m shooting for another review this week, probably on Friday. Lastly, I don’t have my photo area completely setup yet, so I’m making due until I can get a permanent setup and get the lighting right.

Today I’m checking out the Skrull Army Builder, which is currently a Pulse Exclusive. These come in fully enclosed boxes with some nice printed art on the front, but it’s certainly intended to be more utilitarian than the packaging we see in the toy aisles. Inside, the figures and accessories come wrapped up in tissue paper. Personally, I don’t mind it at all. I picked up two of these guys, so let’s see what we got!

As army builders, these are very simple figures, similar to what you’d see as one of the cost-saving releases in a wave. That means there’s no unique sculpting below the neck, and the costume is achieved entirely through paint and colored plastic. They picked a great body for the figure, as it exhibits the added articulation in the shoulder crunches, making these guys pretty limber little shapeshifters! The costume consists of a metallic purple body suit with black boots and gauntlets, black undies, and a black cowl. It’s a decent looking figure, and works well for a nameless trooper.

Each figure comes with two unique portraits, so if you bought a pair like I did, you have a different head for each. The standard head offers a decidedly unhappy expression and it looks fantastic. The long pointed ears have plenty of detail, and he’s got that extra helping of chin with the vertical creases. The prominent, furled brow hangs above his beady little eyes, and his head is covered with a simple skullcap. For a nameless brute, this guy has plenty of personality!

The second head is even better, with a toothy scowl. This is a truly epic sculpt, and easily my favorite of the two.

You don’t get any extra hands with the figure, but you do get two gun hands and two guns to put in them! The first is a very intimidating rifle. This weapon is cast entirely in gray plastic and features plenty of detail in the sculpt.

The second gun is this cool looking little retro-style hairdryer pistol. It’s cast in a matching gray plastic and has a big purple orb on the side. I just love this chunky little gun!

I’ll be honest, I don’t order or pre-order a lot of figures from Pulse, unless they are exclusives, like these. Still, it’s awesome that Hasbro is offering some army builders, and The Skrull were a great choice for this sort of thing. I seem to recall these were about $16 each and that makes it pretty tempting to load up on them. I may go for a third if I find myself ordering something else and these are still in stock, but for now I’m cool with just having the two. And they sure look great when displayed with the Super Skrull Build-A-Figure! Hasbro offered these up at the same time with a pair of SHIELD army builders, and I hope to check those out next week!

Jan 7 2022

Transformers Kingdom: Warpath by Hasbro

It’s been more than ten years since the last Hasbro Warpath figure was welcomed into my collection (I skipped the Combiner Wars release). That Generations figure had a lot going for it, but it was more of a Cybertronian take on the character, with a decidedly unearthly tank mode. Dang, Hasbro, you sure do love your H-Tanks! But, fast forward to the Kingdom series, where Hasbro finally given us a more Earthy attempt at my favorite excitedly expositional tank! Yeah, Warpath was released a little while ago, but I’m trying to chip away at my enormous backlog.

I’m not sure why Warpath gets such scant love, but I was happy to see him listed as an up and coming figure, as well as a Deluxe Class. I think the old G1 Minibots present a ton of opportunity for being modernized, and in some-cases upscaled. Scale was never a constant in the old Sunbow cartoon, but I prefer to see these little guys reborn as Deluxe Class figures, so they can stand shoulder to shoulder with the Autobot cars without fear of getting stepped on. Let’s start with the alt mode!

Oh yeah… now that’s a proper tank mode! Sure it’s a burgundy tank with white treads, but it’s a fairly realistic design and pays a striking homage to the original figure’s deco. The treads are only sculpted, but there are four tiny wheels hidden under them to help Warpath roll out. The cupola can rotate 360-degrees and the cannon can raise and lower. Warpath doesn’t come with an additional weapons Hey, whaddya want? he’s a tank!, but he does have a number of ports so you can plug some extra weapons onto him if you have them lying around.

There’s a ton of great detail in Warpath’s hull! You get panel lines, tiny vents and hatches. I dig how the back plate looks like it could drop down to offload the crew, even though that’s just part of the transformation. My figure has a problem holding the seam together just under his cannon, but otherwise the tank mode holds together quite well. I’ll confess that I’ve had fun having him stalk imaginary targets around the obstacles (junk) of a crowded battlefield (my desk). So how’s the robot mode?

Eh, it’s OK. I like it, but I don’t love it. I like the proportions well enough. His big, tread-bottomed feet look appropriately powerful enough to withstand the force of firing his cannon in robot mode. The cannon collapses all the way into his chest to become one giant robo-nipple. I wish the cupola collapsed down a bit too, but that’s probably asking a lot from Deluxe Class engineering. On the plus side, it gives him a bit of a bitchin’ Mechwarrior profile. But those large chunks of tank tread forearm kibble is kind of hard to take. There’s a lot of give and take here.

All the great detail from the tank’s hull shows up in the robot mode, making the robot mode look just as realistic as the alt mode. Heck, if you look really closely at the back of his knee joints there are sculpted gears in there! The colors also remain pretty consistent from one mode to the next, with just a little more white showing up on Warpath’s midriff. His big clodhoppers feature some pretty generous tilts to keep him surefooted in action poses.

Warpath’s head sculpt leans heavily on his G1 roots, and I’m happy for that. His round face is almost entirely obscured by his mouth plate, leaving just a little band visible to show his blue eyes and the bridge of his nose. I know what you’re thinking: How does he smell with that plate covering his nose? Probably like diesel fumes! HA! Still, the head looks kind of small, which I think is more a trick of the elongated chest than a result of being actually undersized.

And yes, you can extend Warpath’s cannon while he’s in robot mode. I like to think that Warpath was fan of Melville: “If his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it!” To which he would follow up with “WHAM! BANG! KAZOOOWIE!!!”

I do enjoy this figure, but as I said earlier, I just can’t bring myself to love it. While an improvement in many ways over the ten year old Generations figure, Kingdom Warpath feels like maybe a five year old figure. And I think that says more about the company he keeps. To me, his robot mode lacks the pitch perfect polish that we’ve been getting out of figures in Earthrise and Kingdom. I’ve come to regard many of these figures as budget Masterpiece versions, and Warpath certainly ain’t that.