Tag Archives: hasbro

Sep 21 2020

Marvel Legends: Nimrod, Psylocke, and Fantomex by Hasbro

After detouring for a couple of Marvel Mondays, this week I’m back to looking at Marvel Legends. And yeah, I Know I said I was going to start digging into the Sugar Man Wave, but before I get into that, I thought I’d tear into this new three-figure set that hit my doorstep from Amazon last week. And I hope you aren’t all X-Men’ed out because… IT’S MORE X-MEN!!!

This rather large boxed set comes to us as an Amazon Exclusive, and these days I find those are the best kinds of exclusives. Not only was I able to pre-order it without a headache, but did you forget to pre-order? Well, no worries, it’s still up on the site, at least is at the time I’m writing this. The presentation is pretty snappy, with a silver box and a crisp and clean gold X-logo to brand it up. I wouldn’t mind returning these figures to the box for display, and I probably will for a while. That is until the Toy Closet gets too cluttered and I have to start taking extreme measures by culling boxes again. I’ll also throw out there that this is a damn heavy box, as it contains a lot of plastic! Let’s have a look at the figures, and I’ll start with Fantomex first!

We last saw Fantomex waaaaay back in Wave 2 of Modern Legends as part of the Anim Zola Wave. Holy hell, that was eight years and what seems like about a million figures ago! I actually expected a repack, which goes to show you how much I wanted Nimrod, but upon closer inspection I was pleased to see that this is an updated figure. Did we really need a second attempt at Fantomex after all this time? Are there not other characters without figures patiently waiting for their turn? Yeah, but I will say that I’ve always loved Fantomex’s costume. He just looks so bad-ass. But, honestly this one perplexes me a bit. It would have made more sense to just repack him, but let’s dig out the original and do a quick comparison!

At first glance they look quite similar, but a closer inspection shows that they are entirely different figures. I think the older figure still holds up quite well, but this new release has a better build and is slightly better proportioned. Hell, just getting rid of those prehistoric ball joints in the hips is a big improvement. I thought the jackets were the same, but it looks like the older one is sculpted to look like it’s blowing to the right a bit, while the newer one hangs down straight. Otherwise, the two plastic garments are nearly identical. The gunbelt is new, and that makes sense, since the guns are also new. The new figure has a smaller belt buckle, and thigh straps to hold the holsters in place. The older figure has sculpted straps just above the knees, whereas the new one does not. On the downside, the tops of the boots on the new figure are separate pieces and held on by friction. And when I say “held on” I’m being generous, because they are constantly sliding down to his ankles. The old figure had these sculpted on and it was much better. Finally, the gauntlets on the newer figure are flared much more dramatically at the elbows. I think this looks better, but it does interfere with the elbow hinges a bit. Both figures have balance issues, but I think the new one is slightly better. All in all, I’d say the new version is the better figure, but there are still some compromises going on here.

The head sculpt is definitely an improvement over the old one. The noggin is a little bigger to better fit the body, and the sculpting and paint are both tremendous improvements. The eyes on the new figure are look absolutely fantastic. The black striping is a little different, and this new head shows a little less of the facial features under the mask. I really love what they did here.

As I already mentioned, new Fantomex gets new guns, and these are pretty great little sculpts. They’re a little bigger and beefier than the old guns, and they look a little less sci-fi and a little more credible as real world automatics. They’re cast all in gray plastic, with no paint operations, but they have lots of great detail to make them stand out. Also a huge improvement is how well the new figure can hold his guns. The old figure could barely hold his and he couldn’t hold them straight at all. So, chalk that up as another win for new Fantomex!

This figure also comes with some really cool effect parts for his guns. You get a pair of blast effects and a pair of smoke effects, which simply peg into the ends of the muzzles. These are tiny, and hopefully I can keep from losing them, because they are probably some of my favorite effect parts I’ve seen in the Legends line so far.  All in all, this is an excellent update to what was already a pretty good figure. And while I’m not sure I really needed to pay out for a second release of the character, I’m not terribly put out by it either. And that brings us to Psylocke!

Psylocke is another double dip, but at least she’s a variant as she comes in her Uncanny X-Force costume. Sure, we just got her a couple of years back as part of the Apocalypse Wave, and I’m ashamed that I can’t post a link to that review, because I haven’t opened her yet and that entire wave is part of my backlog. I’ll get to that wave eventually! Either way, it’s nice to have this version to go with Fantomex. Plus the Apocalypse Wave Psylocke tends to go for a good chunk of change these days, so for some this may be Consolation Prize Psylocke! Like the previous release, this figure relies almost exclusively on paint to detail her costume, but it works just fine. The sash is actually a newly sculpted piece, now white and with an X-Force logo in the center.

The head sculpt looks new to me, but it’s close enough to the original that it may just be from variances in the molding process and paint. It’s also worth pointing out that the skintone on the new figure is a bit paler than the last one, but that may also be due to coloring variation as opposed to being intentional. Either way, the new figure looks great. The paint applied for her eyes and lips is nice and sharp, and I dig the purple they used for her hair.

X-Force Psylocke comes with the same effect parts as the previous release, although the coloring on these new ones is overall a lot nicer. She also comes with a swappable right fist, which works a little better with the blast part, but isn’t really necessary, as it will work well enough with the accessory holding hand too. All of these look great, but I’m extremely partial to the Katana. She just looks fantastic wielding it. It may seem like I’m running through this figure rather quickly, despite not having reviewed the original yet, but it’ll happen. Plus, I still have the main attraction from this three-pack to cover, so let’s have a look at Nimrod!

I gotta say, I absolutely love the design of the character. He’s got a sort of Bruce Timm stylized look to him that is so bizarre and unique when presented among the regular looking characters. It’s like because he hails from the future, he actually looks out of context in the present. Same goes for how smooth and nearly featureless his body is, making him look sterile and super advanced. It’s just brilliant and it’s even better when presented as this giant slab of an action figure! The entire body is comprised of some lovely pearlescent white plastic that gives him a cool sheen, disturbed only by the pink pin-striping and the translucent pink triangle embedded in his chest and showing off just a hint of some finely sculpted circuitry. From behind, Nimrod shows off some red paint accents and his translucent pink wings, which peg into his back, making him look all the more impressive.

Nimrod’s head is barely a head, but more like a bump coming out of his torso with a face in it. The silver face is framed with some red paint, and otherwise just sports white eyes, a black slit for a mouth, and some black grills in his cheeks. Elegant, simple, and just a tad creepy.

And if you want to go for something a little more classic looking, Nimrod comes with a swappable head with a red face. At first glance it looked fairly similar to the standard head, but it is actually a completely new sculpt, and I think I’m actually partial to it. It has a little more personality and adds a bit more color to the figure.

In terms of articulation, he does indeed feel like a Build-A-FIgure, in that he has all the right points, but being a chunky boi, some of these points don’t offer  quite as much range of motion. The exception would be in the shoulders’ rotating hinges and the fact that the shoulder armor is happily quite flexible. As a result, I was surprised at the amount of movement I could get out of the arms. There are swivels in the biceps, and the elbows are only single-hinged, but you can get a full 90-degree flex out of them. The hands are on hinged pegs. I believe that’s a ball joint in the torso, but mine only wants to swivel, and it snaps back each time I swivel it. I’m not sure what’s going on in there, but I’m not going to risk forcing it, just in case something is stuck. The legs appear to have rotating hinges in the hips, but there’s really very little range in them. The knees are double-hinged, and thus quite good and the ankles have a little bit of movement in a hinge, but not much.

In addition to the extra head, Nimrod comes with two sets of hands, fists and open, and two blast effect parts that plug into the open hands and look pretty sweet.

Marvel Legends never ceases to surprise and amaze me. I mean, it’s been clear that Hasbro has pulled out all the stops with this line a long time ago, but still… getting a set like this is just so magical and I think it really demonstrates what a strong following this line has. It’s an $80 set, which is probably why it wound up as an online exclusive, I’m not sure the Walmarts and Targets would want to take up this much real estate on a planogram for a set this expensive, and populated by characters that your average normie isn’t going to recognize. But while the set may seem pricey, it costs out fairly well at $20 each for Psylocke and Fantomex, that leaves $40 for Nimrod. OK, so Hasbro’s repacks of Build-A-Figures usually run out at the $30 price point, but since this is an entirely new figure, that’s probably where the extra ten bucks comes into play. Either way, it’s a fantastic set and three solid additions to my ever growing Legends collection.

Sep 11 2020

GI JOE Classified: Cobra Commander by Hasbro

After the frustrating hunt that was the Cobra Island exclusives, it feels like I’m suddenly getting hit with a whole bunch of great figures from the new GI JOE Classified series. I just reviewed Gung Ho last week, finally found a Baroness at Target, and got my pre-ordered Arctic Storm Shadow. But I don’t think I was anticipating any figure more than old Bumper Face himself! Let’s take a look at Cobra Commander!  “…Wasssss once a man…” Holy shit, that still creeps me out every time I think about it.

That’s right, fans of the hooded serpent will be disappointed, but that’s OK, because I’m sure we’ll get that variant eventually. I’ve always liked both looks, but you only have to look to the Sideshow Cobra Commander that I have to realize that when given both options, I do prefer the helmet and chrome face shield. Maybe they could have tossed in a hooded head with this one, as I think the hood would look fine on this body. Ah, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Here’s a shot of him in the package, and everything looks as great as ever. Hasbro continues to number these, and Cobra Commander ranks in as Figure Number 6, but the actual system for numbering them doesn’t always make a lot of sense.

The box features some really nice wrap-around art, which surprisingly gets a lot of the coloring on the figure completely wrong. In the artwork, the silver trim on the figure is replaced by gold. That’s really odd, considering this is an original design, but whatever. I also really dig his skill icons. The puppet icon is hilarious, but what the hell is the lightning bolt brain supposed to be? Mind control, maybe?

Classified Cobra Commander looks regal as all hell, and I love that! While I may waffle between hood and helmet sometimes, I was never a fan of Battle Armor Commander. To me The Commander is all about puffing himself up on pomp and circumstance and shouting at his troops from as far away from the battlefield as possible. And boy does this figure design fit that bill perfectly. Yeah, I’ll admit that I was worried about what we were going to get for Cobra Commander, because a couple of the designs choices have strayed a little too far from the Real American Hero originals than I would like. Turns out I worried for nothing, because this guy looks amazing.

Our Leader sports a dress uniform with a very spiffy tunic, complete with silver lined front flap and two rows of buttons that may or may not be painted to look like serpent eyes. I’m going to just give Hasbro the credit and say that’s intentional.The shoulder area has a snake scale texture to it, as does the panels on the sides of the tunic, and the red stripes running down the sides of his trouser and disappearing into his high boots. The Cobra insignia is printed in red on his chest and partially covered by a gold ornamental chain. His forearms have silver bordered bracers, each with their own Cobra insignia as well. This is a snappy uniform and I absolutely love it. My only gripe is that I wish the blue were a tad lighter. Based on leaked pictures, it seems like we may be getting a brighter repaint, but I guess I’ll have to wait and see. The Commander has a double belt and shoulder strap, which connects to a left pauldron, which also secures his half-cape. The pauldron sports some silver paint and there’s a golden Cobra fixture holding it in place, while the cape is black on the outside with a painted red liner. The belts all have a snake-skin pattern to them. Nice!

The helmet is very form fitting and I dig how the sides are separate from the face shield. The silver “mohawk” is there as well as some black cut-outs above the ears and a silver border painted along the bottom edge. The helmet looks great, but the paint on mine is a little disappointing here, as there’s a bit of silver slop on the side. I do like the finish they used for the shield quite a bit. It’s obviously not a mirror polish, but it does have a nice luster to it.

I won’t run through all the articulation here, because it’s pretty much identical to the Classified male figures we’ve seen so far, and that means it’s very good. The lower part of the tunic does inhibit his leg movement a bit at the hips, but not terribly so. Cobra Commander comes with two sets of hands. These are a right accessory holding hand, a right pointing finger, a left grasping hand, and a left fist. I’m always grateful for extra hands, but I believe it was a rather big omission to not give him a left accessory holding hand when he comes with two accessories. I would have much rather had that than the fist. So, let’s talk about those accessories!

First up, Cobra Commander comes with a bitchin’ sword with a gold cobra-head hilt. I love the hilt, but the blade is super funky. I’m sure Hasbro was going for something highly stylized, futuristic, and cool, but I would have preferred a standard saber. This thing just looks so crazy and impractical that it took me a little while to decide which side is supposed to be the edge. It also doesn’t fit very well in the included scabbard. The scabbard actually has a slit cut in it to allow the blade to protrude out, but I think the idea is that part of the blade is meant to protrude out the top. I’ve tried it in the scabbard both ways, and concluded that the best way to go has the snake head facing forward. I don’t want to come down too hard on this piece. It’s still pretty cool, but I would have gone in a different direction with the blade.

Next up is his pistol, and holy shit this thing is all sorts of awesome. It’s basically a silver-plated flintlock with an over-the-top snake motif going on. It’s obviously a far cry from his old iconic hair dryer pistol, but as impractical and crazy as this thing looks, I think it perfectly suits the Commander. I can picture him firing off his one shot at a battle and then shouting to his troops to finish the job. while he retreats to the safety of his command center. Ugh, the lack of a second accessory hand is killing me here. I want to pose him holding his sword aloft and firing this thing. Maybe I can rig something up with one of the Snake Eyes hands. Also, notice he doesn’t have a holster for this gun. Another disappointing omission.

Clearly, I’ve had a few nitpicks here, but all those issues have just been things that I think could have made this excellent figure so much better. OK, so the one accessory hand is a pretty big gaffe on Hasbro’s part, but I don’t want to let those things detract from how much I love this Cobra Commander! The dress uniform characterizes him perfectly and it looks damn sharp. The accessories are crazy in almost every good way, and he looks fantastic standing next to Destro and barking orders. The only downside is now more than ever I want to get a second Cobra Trooper to display behind him. COBRA!!!

Sep 9 2020

Transformers Earthrise: Quintesson Judge by Hasbro

To quote the great Bob Dylan, “How many roads must a man walk down, before he gets an official figure of a Quinesson Judge from the original Transformers movie?” Well, if we equate those roads as years, the answer is 34 roads. While Hasbro once dabbled with the idea by releasing the horrifically terrible Alpha Quintesson in the Energon line, it really has taken us this long to get a proper Quintesson Judge. I’m not sure if it’s because they were convinced it had to have some kind of transforming gimmick, and up until now couldn’t come up with one, but more on that later. For now, let’s just see if it was worth the wait!

The Judge conforms to the Voyager price point, and he comes in a window box with all the typically awesome artwork that I’ve come to expect from Siege and Earthrise. You can get a good look at the figure inside, but he does require a little bit of assembly as two of the Five Faces of Darkness are detached so he can better fit in the package. I don’t think I can adequately stress how amazing it was to finally hold a toy of this guy. The Quintessons blew my little mind back in the day. They epitomized the new direction that the art and design would take in the movie, and also represented the new direction for the Transformers lore that would go on to characterize the third season of the Sunbow series. They were a prime example of the kind of look we would get into the Universe that the Transformers lived in, and introduced a whole new backstory to the series canon. So yeah, getting this toy is kind of a big deal.

Here he is out of the box and sure enough, he is indeed a proper Quintesson Judge! These things were so damn weird, that it’s hard to believe they were actually incorporated into a Western released cartoon. The Judge is characterized by his egg shaped, eh body? levitating on a stream of energy, with tendrils coming out the bottom, and the fabled Five Faces surrounding the middle of the egg. The body itself features some basic panel lining and features a lever, which can rotate the heads as they were apt to do in the cartoon. The tendrils are bendy, but they pretty much hold just one configuration, although they can be positioned up or down thanks to some jointing where they meet the body. The levitation beam is translucent plastic and can be removed from the bottom. The above image shows my favorite of all the faces, Death, and it is a fantastic sculpt. A lever on the bottom allows the mouths on some of these faces to articulate.

Next up we have The Face of Wisdom. Not nearly as creepy as Death, but still pretty cool. It really shows off the more organic types of faces that the artists were starting to design for the robotic life in the Transformers Universe. Heck, even a number of Transformers were starting to get much more organic looks to them.

For number three we have The Face of Judgement. This one strays a little bit from what I remember the orginal design looking like, but after consulting some pictures, it’s really no that far off. Maybe just a bit more stylized. I love the long face and those tapering sides of his “helmet” The spikes on top are pretty cool too.

The fourth face is The Face of Wrath, and it is a pretty nasty looking piece of work indeed. The yellow teeth and the beady red eyes are great. Once again, I dig the way they did the “helmet” with the sides protruding from an outward angle away from the face. The pointed chin gives the face a severe look. I’d also like to point out here how Hasbro went overboard with the coloring on this figure. Lately, we’re lucky if we get a handful of colors on a Deluxe or Voyager, but here we get greens, reds, oranges, grays, everything is colored the way it should be.

And finally we have The Face of War. I always thought this was the goofiest of the faces, and an unlikely candidate for being War, but it’s still a remarkable sculpt, with the bulbous lips, the circular cheeks, and the angled slits for eyes. We also get the coloring that suggests a mustache, along with a beard. What was it with Transformers and facial hair? I remember first seeing that on Alpha Trion back in the day and even my little mind, full of wondrous imagination, couldn’t comprehend it. Either way, there you have a tour of all the Faces and I think they look great. Indeed everything about this toy registers as a direct hit in my book.

The Judge needs his throne, and Hasbro included a little green chair for him to sit in, or in this case levitate on. It’s a nice reference to the throne that the Judge was sitting on in the movie, but it’s very basic and lacks the pomp and circumstance of the one seen in the movie. Honestly, I think this was included solely for the transformation gimmick.

Oh yeah, he also comes with a little gun that can be pegged into any of the tendrils. The gun also has a regular peg handle so it can be used by any of the other figures. Cool! I’d be perfectly fine with ending the review right here, but of course, Hasbro had to give him a transforming gimmick, because… you know… Transformers! So let’s see what they came up with!

Yup. That’s certainly a thing. Hasbro has made it a habit of dropping in a few figures here and there that transform into playsets for the tiny figures, and that’s the direction they went for here. Conceptually, I’m not all that clear on what they were going for here. It’s basically a tower and a jail cell. The cell is designed for the little guys in this line, but I just had a Titan Master handy, and he works pretty well. Honestly, I don’t know if the person who designed this alt mode deserves a commendation for originality or to be laughed at. On the one hand, I guess it’s impressive that they were able to get any kind of alt mode out of a Quintesson. On the other hand, you can be sure that this will be the first and only time I’ll ever transform the figure.

I have one rule about bad and unnecessary transformers: If they don’t mess with the figure, I don’t care, and that’s most definitely the case here. Sure, I would have been fine if they had just left out the transformation gimmick altogether, but since it doesn’t effect the figure I can just pretend that it doesn’t exist. And this is a really great little figure! Hasbro did a beautiful job bringing this creepy guy to my collection, and yes, I will be hunting down a couple more. Now I can’t wait until the rest of the Quintessons start turning up. Oh, and I wouldn’t mind a Deluxe Class upgrade to the Sharkticons either!

Sep 4 2020

GI JOE Classified: Gung Ho by Hasbro

Distribution and exclusives issues aside, Hasbro’s new GI JOE line has been delivering tons of goodies and we’re still in the initial months of its launch. I honestly did not expect this many figures to be hittinig the pegs so soon. Yeah, I’m still hunting for a Baroness, Beach Head and a couple more Cobra Troopers, but that’s cool. They will be mine eventually!!! And so without wasting any time, let’s dive in and check out the newest addition to the JOE team, everybody’s favorite gumbo-slurping Jarhead… Gung Ho!

The packaging looks just as good as ever. It’s colorful, it has some wonderful character art, that cool iconography-based skill list on the side panel, and it’s all collector friendly if you want to save these. And much like Hasbro’s Star Wars Black Series, the figures are numbered, which means you absolutely have to buy them all. YOU HAVE TO!!! I was excited to see Gung Ho was teased so early in the line, as he was a favorite figure of mine in the Real American Hero series.

And I’m equally excited to see that Hasbro hasn’t messed around with his iconic look too much. This Marine from the Bayou still dons his camo pants and wears a tactical vest with no shirt, allowing him to show off his guns and his chest tattoo. The vest features some great sculpted detail, which includes pockets, reinforced plates, a brace of grenades on the left shoulder, and some cool texturing. He also has that silver and blue gizmo on his right shoulder that a lot of the JOEs have had. When I first saw this on Roadblock, I thought it was some kind of tool for adjusting his machine gun, but apparently it’s some sort of ID? Maybe?

In addition to the vest, Gung Ho has a few other separately sculpted pieces worn on him, including a trio of canister grenades strapped ot his left thigh, a silver arm bracer on his right forearm, and an elbow pad on his left arm. He also has some armor pieces on his lower legs, but these are sculpted as part of the figure. Overall, I like the deco on this guy. The camo pants and darker green jacket give him that appropriate military look while the metallic silver paint add some pop.

Gung Ho’s head sculpt is fantastic! It takes the portrait on the old figure that I know and love and gives it a dose of realism. He’s sporting a stern expression, and the sculpt and paint on that handlebar mustache is on point. The hat is removable, and to be honest, I had to apply a little blue-tack to get it to stay on. I was surprised when it came off to see Gung Ho sporting a little mohawk patch up there, which is also perfectly sculpted and painted. This guy just looks like he was born to piss in Cobra’s cornflakes. I’m glad he’s one of the good guys, because I would not want to mess with him.

The articulation here is every bit as good as I’ve come to expect in this line. Gung Ho’s arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, double-hinges in the elbows, and he also has the added shoulder crunches, which I was not expecting as these are concealed by the jacket. His legs have those double ball-joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double-hinges in the knees, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. He has a ball joint in the waist, an ab-crunch hinge under the chest, and his neck is both hinged and ball jointed. Gung Ho is a lot of fun to play around with, and with his vest off, he looks like he’s ready to go a few rounds with Cobra’s toughest customer in a cage match to the death.

Gung Ho comes with a pretty big backpack, which is capable of holding all of his weapons. Well, technically it is. The side clips work well, but the clip on the bottom, not so much. But that’s OK, because he can hold that weapon and still manage to carry everything he comes with. As has been the case with previous figures, Gung Ho’s weaponry have a decidedly science-fiction flavor to them. In some cases, I don’t mind this so much, as long as there’s still a real world element to them. Let’s see how these guns turned out!

First off, he has what I presume is supposed to be a grenade launcher. I think this was a great choice, as I seem to recall his 25th Anniversary figure coming with an M-79 grenade launcher. This one has a revolver-type cylinder and a top carry bar. Like all the weapons here, it’s molded in a sort of gray plastic, which seems to hold the sculpted detail pretty well. This baby fits my criteria as looking fairly convincing in its overall design and I dig it a lot.

Next up, we’ve got what I’m calling a shotgun. Yeah, it has some kind of vertically orientated beam emitter on the muzzle, but the foregrip looks like it’s meant to pump. Maybe you pump to charge it and it blasts out a spread of energy? Maybe I’m over-thinking it. Either way, it looks like it has what is supposed to be a telescoping stock and there’s a rail on the top to fit a scope or light or whatever else he wants to throw on top of it. So, this one isn’t quite as convincing as the grenade launcher, but I don’t mind it.

Finally, Gung Ho comes with a carbine, with a rear mounted magazine. This has some similarities to the shotgun, as the muzzle is basically the same and it also has a rail on top for customization. This looks like it would be a pretty good gun for when you’re boogying through the jungle and need to blast any Cobra that happens to pop up out of the trees.

And so, Hasbro delivers another great figure in this new Classified line up. Gung Ho keeps the trend going of taking a familiar design and tweaking it just enough to make it feel fresh and new, while still being faithful to the original character design. I’m sure there are plenty of purists out there who will scoff at the armor pieces and the sci-fi weapons, but I’m finding that I really dig these new looks. As I’ve said before, it wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I can’t deny that these are great looking figures and above all loads of fun!

Sep 1 2020

Marvel Legends (Crimson Dynamo Wave): Crimson Dynamo Build-A-Figure by Hasbro

I’m extending Marvel Monday out one more day so I can wrap up this look at the Crimson Dynamo Wave Build-A-Figure today. That’s right! As if opening the last figure in a wave of Marvel Legends wasn’t reward enough, Hasbro lets us cobble together a brand new figure for our efforts. It’s like the cherry on top of a plastic sundae! This time, it’s the Crimson Dynamo from what is coincidently called the Crimson Dynamo Wave! Wow… funny how that worked out! This brute is composed of a whopping nine pieces scattered throughout all but one figure in this assortment. Pieces include the arms, legs, head, torso, two shoulder pieces, and a back plate.

Crimson Dynamo is of course the moniker given to the Soviet Union’s equivalent of the Iron Man armor. Like Stark’s armor, the USSR’s version has turned up in various styles, sizes, and configurations, but unlike Iron Man, the Crimson Dynamo has been manned by various Soviet agents. I think the last time I encountered this bruiser in plastic form was as part of Hasbro’s 3 3/4-inch Iron Man as Dmitri Bukharin. This time we’re getting the more imposing and more recent Gennady Gavrilov’s suit, and boy was this a great choice! It’s big and bulky and the design has that certain primitive but imposing retro design.

The suit is composed of a silver base, which looks like it’s been fitted with maroon armored pieces. The arms and torso have that segmented metal look that I love so much and instantly calls to mind Collosus from the X-Men. The chunkier maroon bits have some organic curves and some sparing panel lines. The result is a detailed suit that doesn’t look too busy. Still, some wonderful details included the ribbed ankles that look like they’re supposed to be made of a more flexible material, the reinforced fronts of the boots for kicking Western Capitalist ass, and those powerful hands that look like they could make short work of one of Stark’s armors if he were to get it in his clutches. Possibly my favorite thing here is the translucent green tubes in the wrists that look like they’re supposed to be some kind of cooling rods for the janky reactor that powers this behemoth. It’s all just so damn cool!

The helmet fits in with the more primitive look of the Soviet design. It’s got what looks like a giant boiler plate mounted ot the front of it with a grill for a mouth and a simple slit for a visor. The giant armored shoulders have bolts jutting out of the front and the surface is sculpted with cracks and fissures. There’s a dual exhaust protruding from the right shoulder, and the Soviet Star in the center of his chest is painted with an almost flourescent glow that matches the paint used for the visor. Spectacular!

As always, Hasbro doesn’t skimp on the articulation for these big figures, although the sheer bulk of this figure’s design does give some of those joints a little less range of motion. But that’s not to say this guy isn’t a heck of a lot of fun to play with. The legs have rotating hinges in the hips and ankles, double hinges in the knees, and swivels up in the thighs. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and single hinges in the elbows. There’s a ball joint under the chest, and the neck is ball jointed. I like that they gave him one hand sculpted into a fist and the other grasping, as they work with a number of different poses.

While I would still love to see some of the other Crimson Dynamo armors get the Marvel Legends treatment, I’m very pleased that Hasbro chose to do this one as a Build-A-Figure. It’s such a damned cool design and it makes for an impressive display piece on the shelf next to the likes of Iron Monger and the SHIELD Mandroid. And boy would it be cool to one day see a version of this guy turn up in the MCU. Although, to be fair, I’ve been really tempering my expectations of what we’re going to be seeing out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Black Widow.

And that’s a wrap for this wave. It was an overall excellent assortment of figures. The Black Widow film was well represented, but we also got some great comic-based figures as well. I’m sure Crossbones was a welcome addition to anyone who missed out on the old Thunderbolts SDCC set and I think we were long overdue for a comic-based WInter Soldier. But seriously, Hasbro, we need a WWII-era Bucky Barnes now. I’d say that Spymaster is easily the odd-man out in this wave, and that’s not because he’s a bad figure, but aesthetically he really doesn’t fit with the rest of the crowd. For next week’s Marvel Monday, I’m going to detour out of Marvel Legends, but when I return for a new assortment, I’ll be checking out the Sugar Man Wave!

Aug 31 2020

Marvel Legends (Crimson Dynamo Wave): Yelena Belova by Hasbro

It’s me! I’m back! After a terrible week of working nights, getting very little sleep, missing two days of FFZ content, and being generally burnt out, I’d like to tell you that I’m all rested up and ready for action, but I wouldn’t go that far… at least I’m here! And picking up from last week I’m back to open the last figure in the Crimson Dynamo Wave!

Yelena Belova, sometimes known as The Crimson Widow will apparently be a big part of the still yet to be released Black Widow film. I could have sworn reading something that referred to her as Natasha Romanov’s sister. I’m not sure if that’s was meant as her spiritual sister, since they both trained in The Red Room, or if the MCU is writing her as Black Widow’s actual sister, but I guess some day I’ll see the movie and all will be revealed. She’s svelt enough to be packaged with the biggest of the Crimson Dynamo parts, including not only his massive torso, but also his shoulder armor, and they still had some room in there for some accessories!

Let me start by saying that from a design standpoint, this is not a terribly exciting figure, but that’s not in any way Hasbro’s fault. They did the best with what the design that was given them. Yelena is wearing what appears to be a close copy of Black Widow’s white arctic suit, which we saw released as a Deluxe Legends figure a little while back. She even has the Widow’s Bite bracelets on her wrists. The biggest difference here is the green tactical vest that’s sculpted as part of the figure. And if I recall correctly we even see Natasha wearing something similar in part of the trailer.  It has some cross straps with painted silver buckles, and some black accents as well. Like I said, there’s nothing terribly flashy here, but it’s still pretty well done.

Yelena is wearing a belt, sculpted as a separate piece, with a silver belt buckle, donning the Black Widow emblem. The belt includes a holster, which is secured to her right thigh with two straps, and a brace of combat knives secured to her left thigh with a single strap. The holster works to hold one of her two pistols, but the knives are merely sculpted into place and not removable.

The head sculpt here is excellent. It’s not only a great likeness to Florence Pugh, an actress I’ve never even heard of before now, but there’s certainly a resemblance there to Scarlett Johansen as well, making me wonder if they aren’t supposed to be actual sisters in the film. I’ve never read anything that depicted them as blood relatives in the funnybooks, but if the push in the MCU will be to have Yelena take up the mantle as the new Black Widow, I wouldn’t be adverse to the MCU making that connection. Ah, but maybe that’s just me being sentimental. Anyway, the sculpted hair on this portait is especially well done, although the drawback is that it makes the neck joint extremely obvious from the back.

The articulation here is identical to what we saw with the Black Widow figure in this wave, and that’s to be expected. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double-hinges in the knees, swivels in the thighs, and the ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, hinged pegs in the wrists, and those super funky rotating hinges in the elbows, that I am not at all fond of. They give a decent range of motion for a single hinge, but they just look weird. The torso has a ball joint under the chest, and the neck is ball jointed. You get two sets of hands with Yelena, one set of fists, and one for holding her guns.

The guns are the only accessories she comes with, and I find it odd that she only has a holster for the one. It would have been cool to give her one perhaps on the back of her belt, but again Hasbro is just working with a film design here, and I’m not going to turn my nose up at an extra gun.

Despite a somewhat bland design, I actually ended up liking this figure a heck of a lot. Like Black Widow, she’s fun to pose and play around with. The outfit sports some sharp detail, the paint apps are used sparingly, but effectively, and the portrait is absolutely fantastic. All in all a great figure to end what has been an extremely solid wave. Now, normally, when I finish a wave of Marvel Legends, I like to double up and review the Build-A-Figure on the same day, but I’m still playing catch up on my rest from last week, as well as dealing with a bunch of other stuff that I need to tend to, so I’m going to cheat a little today and come back tomorrow and have a look at the Crimson Dynamo BAF!

Aug 24 2020

Marvel Legends (Crimson Dynamo Wave): Taskmaster by Hasbro

It’s Marvel Monday, and I’m down to my last TWO figures to open in the somewhat Black Widow themed Crimson Dynamo Wave of Marvel Legends! I thought it was three, but it turns out somehow I wound up buying Red Guardian twice. That’s what happens when you have a huge backlog of these things. Anyway, if you told me back in January that we’d still be waiting to see this flick in August, I’d think you were nuts! And yet here we are. I was excited for this movie from the get-go, but once they revealed Taskmaster was in it, I’ve since gone to a state well beyond excitement! Come on, DIsney. Just put it on the streaming service!!!

We’ve had not one, but two comic versions of Taskmaster in the modern Legends line, and now it’s the ass-kicking mimic’s turn to debut on the big screen, here’s the MCU version. Taskmaster is the only figure in the assortment to not include a Crimson Dynamo BAF part. I’m not sure if that’s because they already crammed so much stuff into this box, or because Hasbro knew everyone would probably buy him anyway.

I think the costume designers did a pretty nice job on the MCU makeover. He’s easily recognizable as Taskmaster, and yet there’s enough of makeover to allow this design to work in the “real world” of the Marvel films. Actually, I think they gave him a little bit more comic flare than I was expecting, especially where the colors were concerned. Yes, he’s basically a dude in a tactical suit with some bits of armor strategically placed, but the metallic blue and the orange trim really make the otherwise muted dark blue suit pop, and they are certainly a nice nod back to his comic colors. That’s especially the case on this figure where the coloring looks fantastic. His cape from the comics has been reduced to a weird sculpted plastic scarf that is clipped onto his shoulders, almost like a reverse cape. On his back he has a rather understated backpack. One of the biggest surprises about this figure is his complete lack of holsters or clips to attach his weapons, but I’ll come back to that in just a bit.

Like the rest of the figure, the head sculpt teases the traditional Taskmaster look, but then goes and does its own thing. The skull motif on his silver mask is still there, but it’s very understated, and now the mask is dominated by a large black visor that looks like two giant bug eyes. It’s creepy and probably makes for some good psychological warfare when he’s facing down opponents. The hood is designed to turn with the figure’s head and features more of that snappy orange paint.

As expected, Taskmaster sports all the usual points of articulation, allowing him to mimic the fighting styles of my other Legends figures. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double-hinged at the knees, have swivels in the thighs, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. The torso swivels at the waist, has a really well hidden ab-crunch under the chest, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, double-hinged elbows, swivels in the biceps, and the wrists are on hinged pegs to allow the hands to be swapped out. Taskmaster comes with a whopping three sets of hands, including one pair for holding accessories, one pair of fists, and one pair of scratching claws. Looks like someone picked up a few moves from Black Panther! Let’s move on to the accessories!

FIrst off, he comes with this bow and arrow, and I am not at all fond of these. The bow looks OK, but it has a really thick plastic “string” which means you can’t really pose him drawing it to fire. The arrow, on the other hand, is ridiculously large and chunky, and he can’t hold it all that well. And since there’s no way to have him wear the bow on his back, nor is there a quiver for his arrow, I doubt I’ll be getting much use out of these.

Thankfully he also comes with his sword and shield, and these are much better accessories! The shield is smaller than I’m used to seeing him carry in the comics, but it still has a variation of his triskelion pattern printed in orange on the front. The reverse makes use of one of those clip-peg combos that we’re used to seeing on the Captain America shields and it works well for attaching it ot his arm, but there’s no hole in his back for him to wear it, so they may have just been reusing that piece for cost or convenience.

The sword is a modern looking piece of cutlery with an orange stripe on the blade, which not only matches the accents on his outfit but maybe nods back to Taskmaster’s laser sword. He can hold it very well, but like the shield, there’s nowhere for him to wear it on his person when it isn’t being used. And that all sums up my biggest problem with this figure is that none of his gear can attach to him. A hole for the shield on his back and a loop for the sword would have gone a long way. Maybe those GI JOE Classified figures have spoiled me. Speaking of which, I think this figure would make a great mercenary to add to the GI JOE Classified shelf.

This figure looks great and it went a long way to sell me on the MCU Taskmaster design. That’s no small accomplishment, since the Hot Toys figure didn’t manage to do it. Or maybe I like it enough to have it represented in a $20 figure, but not enough for a $220 figure. Either way, I think Hasbro did a great job with the sculpt and paint, but I wish they had made the figure a little more accessory friendly. Sure, that may be a design element carried from the film, but since I haven’t seen the movie yet, I can only blame the toy for now. Otherwise, I dig him a lot. Next week, I’ll wrap up this wave with a look at the final boxed figure and the Crimson Dynamo Build-A-Figure!

Aug 17 2020

Marvel Legends (Crimson Dynamo Wave): Spymaster by Hasbro

What’s this? Marvel Monday again! It feels like the weeks are just flying by. I think I’m a little more than halfway through this Black Widow-themed assortment of Marvel Legends. Today I’m going to let it ride with the comic-book figures and have a look at Blue and Yellow Deadpool! Oh no, wait. It’s Spymaster. My bad!

Yes, fans can now breathe a sigh of relief because Spymaster has hit the modern Legends line. And if you didn’t read that with a sarcastic tone, try it again. Me? Well, I dig deep cuts like this one, and with all the Iron Man figures I have, it’s always nice to toss in another one of his advesaries. Why is he in this wave? I dunno, maybe because Taskmaster trained him? It’s like a six degrees of separation kinda thing. Anyway, Hasbro backed off the artsy red and black color scheme for this package, probably because it wasn’t going to work with the character’s distinctive color scheme.

Now to be fair, this is not my first choice for costume. I would have much preferred his silver and black suit. But with that having been said I actually dig the flashy cheese of this look. How you get any spying done dressed like this, I don’t rightly know, but hey… you be you, Spymaster! As I’m sure you can tell, this is one of them budget figures that gets by on a lot of paint and very little fresh sculpting. But the paint lines are clean, there’s really no bleeding, and the vibrant yellow looks great alongside the darker blue. The only other detail is the chest logo, a dagger against a checkered backdrop, which is razor sharp.

From the neck down the only new sculpting we get here is the yellow utility belt, which includes some sculpted pouches, a flash “S” logo as a buckle, and functional holster for Spymaster’s sidearm. The firearm is molded in red plastic, because that’s exactly the color this suit is missing! I feel like I’ve seen this pistol before, but I can’t quite place who had it last. It’s a very futuristic design, but I seem to recall his gun being a little chunkier. But what the hell, I think it suits him pretty well.

The head sculpt is new, with a disnctive arch sculpted into the forehead. There are some vague facial features sculpted into the mask as well as a rather prominent brow. The eyes are without pupils, and as with the rest of the figure the paint here is vibrant and sharp.

Spymaster’s articulation makes for a fun figure and features all the usual points I’m used to seeing in my Legends figures. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double-hinged knees, and swivels at the thighs and tops of the boots. The ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers to keep him stable even in those wide stances. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, the elbows are double-hinged, and he has swivels in the biceps. The torso swivels at the waist, has an ab-crunch hinge, and the neck has both a ball joint and hinge.

I’ve seen more than a little bit of hate for this figure, but you won’t get any of it from me. Spymaster has a cool history and a look that just screams comic book costume. The only reason I say that I wish Hasbro went for the silver and black costume is because I can’t imagine them ever doing this character again. And that’s it for the comic-based figures in this wave. Just two more to go, and they’re both from the Black Widow movie, and I’ll dig into one of those next week!

Aug 14 2020

GI JOE Classified: Cobra Trooper (Target Exclusive) by Hasbro

If the last couple weeks were any indication, Hasbro may have seriously underestimated the demand for the new GI JOE Classified figures. The first wave seems to have flown off the shelves, at least in my area, and the new wave of Target Exclusive Special Mission: Cobra Island figures sold out instantly online and are selling out in stores even before the issued Street Date of 8/14, which is today! Of course, it doesn’t help when one of those figures is a Cobra troop builder, and that’s who I’m checking out today!

You can never be too sure what you’re going to get with this line’s design, but I’m happy to say that Cobra’s mainstay trooper offers a welcome nod toward the traditional and iconic. The packaging is similar to what we’ve been seeing all along, with some fantastic artwork and the Cobra Island logo added to the front of the box. And look at all the stuff they packed in there! The tray is positively bursting with goodies! The rest of this assortment includes Beachhead, another version of Roadblock, and Baroness with a motorcycle. I’ve been shit out of luck with the rest of them, but I’m thankful for a buddy of mine who found a couple of these and shipped me one at cost.

I’m happy to say that this figure hits all the points that I’m looking for in a traditional Cobra grunt. Indeed, he eschews a lot of the solider-on-parade look of some of the early Cobra Trooper designs and adopts more of a down-and-dirty urban warfare look that I dig a lot. He has a very traditional blue uniform, which is reinforced by sculpted black pads on his upper arms, black bracers on his forearms, black kneepads, and high black boots. His upper chest has a sculpted black panel with a bold and embossed red Cobra emblem, and the rest of his torso is covered by a highly detailed flak jacket. Some nice touches include the additional Cobra emblems embossed on the backs of his gloves… they really branded the hell out of this guy! There’s also an optional red armband to give him a little more color. I really can’t say enough good things about how this overall design turned out. He just looks like a force to be reckoned with.

The head sculpt is that of a determined killer. Just look at those eyes! He looks like a real nasty piece of work. He’s wearing a balaclava to cover everything but his eyes and those rather cross eyebrows, and the usual black Cobra facemask has been upgraded to what looks like some kind of breather unit with some great sculpting. The helmet is removable, but it fits quite well and doesn’t keep popping off when I’m posing him. Without the helmet on, I’m getting a major Mortal Kombat vibe off of him, and I’m not sure that’s a bad thing.

He also has a pair of what I presume are night vision goggles, which can be worn down around his neck when not in use. This eyewear transforms him into pure nightmare fuel. Seriously, I find this bug-eyed look absolutely terrifying.

The Cobra Trooper comes with a lot of weapons, and I’m delighted to say that he can wear his entire arsenal on his person. Let’s start wiht his flak jacket! There’s a sheath attached to the left shoulder strap to hold his rather odd little combat knife. The accessory is molded in black plastic, has a curved grip that fits his hands well, and if you look really close you can possibly make out the serpent head at the base of the blade with its mouth open to make the blade appear to be protruding from his maw. The blade itself is stubby and has no point. It almost looks like one of those ancient flint knives you see in museums. This is not the type of cutlery I would have expected a Cobra Trooper to be carrying, but it is certainly unique.

Next up, the Trooper comes with a set of matched pistols, one of which is stored in the holster to the front, right side of his flakjacket, while the other is attached to the bottom left side of the back of the jacket. The front holster is actually branded with yet another raised Cobra emblem. These pistols follow the decidedly sci-fi designs that we’ve been seeing in most of the Classified weapons, but I think these are pretty cool looking.

Moving on to the bigger guns, the Cobra Trooper features holes on his back that his other guns can peg into. First off, he has this pretty sweet looking carbine. Yeah, once again it’s got a futuristic flavor to it, but in all fairness modern Assault Carbines are getting so crazy looking nowadays, I could probably believe this is a real weapon.

And finally, he has this rather large rifle for when he needs to make a bigger, bolder statement.  Once again, it’s definitely fictional, but not outside of the realm of possibility. This one has a scope, a short magazine, and the peg that holds it into his back can double as a grab bar. The weapons in this line have been a bit of a mixed bag, so I’m happy to say this Trooper’s are excellent. The detail invested into them is top notch and I’m glad their molded in black plastic to give them that sense of realism.

There’s no other way to say it, Hasbro absolutely killed it with this figure. The overall design makes him look like a rough and ready combatant to be reckoned with. He’s a foe to be taken seriously, rather than the bumbling oafs that were peppered over most episodes of the Sunbow cartoon. And besides looking great, Hasbro loaded him up with some pretty cool weapons and a place for him to carry every last one of them. What’s not to love? Well, how about the difficulty acquiring one, let alone actually troop building them. I got shut out of the pre-orders immediately, and just got very VERY lucky to have a buddy looking out for me. I figure that I need at least two more of these Troopers, but honestly, if I ever do actually see him on the pegs, I”m pretty sure I’ll buy every one I come across. Hasbro is really missing out if they don’t decide to offer some kind of troop building deal on their Pulse store. Sure, this one is a Target Exclusive, but I’m sure they can work around that pretty easily. So listen up, Hasbro. You bundle four of these guys for $100, and I’ll order me up a set. Unless you don’t want my money.

Aug 10 2020

Marvel Legends (Crimson Dynamo Wave): Winter Soldier by Hasbro

It’s Marvel Monday and I’m pressing on with my look at the Crimson Dynamo Wave! After checking out a couple of figures from the Black Widow movie, I thought I’d turn back to another one of the comic book figures in this assortment. Strangely, Bucky hasn’t had much comic book love in the modern Legends line, despite his heavy influences on the MCU. And while I’ll confess I would much rather have had a Bucky Barnes figure by now to hang out with one of my many MANY Caps, I won’t turn my nose up at this new Winter Soldier figure.

And here he is in the package along with a noggin for the Crimson Dynamo BAF! This is probably a pretty modern look for Winter Soldier, as the lines between comic and MCU designs are pretty blurred here. As many of you know I’ve given up on current Marvel comics, but I think I last encountered Bucky in the pages of The Thunderbolts. Indeed, when I found this figure on the pegs, it  actually took me a second to realize this wasn’t MCU Bucky with a bad Sebastian Stan likeness. Nope, he’s straight from the pages of the funny books!

Oh YEAH! Hasbro went off the charts with some of the sculpted detail on this guy, especially where his equipment is concerned. The costume itself is pretty standard stuff, particularly his familiar tunic with the horizontal strips running across his chest. The combat pants have nice texturing and some sculpted pockets, and are tucked into his high-laced military boots. Overall, the colors are pretty dark, but there’s a lighter blue wash to bring out some of the details in his tunic.

The cybernetic arm is sculpted with a ribbed texture and lots of musculature. It’s also got a nice silver-gray sheen to it and a star printed on the shoulder. The hands have sculpted, finger-less gloves, and I dig that they actually sculpted the cybernetic jointing into the fingers on his left hand. You gotta really look to see it, which makes it all the more welcome. Holy crap, he’s even even wearing a watch on his left wrist.

And then we come to tall the extra gear they strapped to him! For starters he’s got a harness with ammo pouches running across his chest. Below that he has a tactical belt with grenades, magazines, and a combat knife and pistol, alas neither of which are removable. Finally, he has two more magazines strapped to his left thigh. Hasbro even popped for some paint operations on the grenades, gun, and magazines. Nice!

The head sculpt is quite good, giving us something of a generic Sebastian Stan, which is pretty much how I remembered him the last time I saw him in a comic panel. He has a domino mask, which is part of the sculpt and neatly painted, and a coif of long hair with strands hanging down on either side of his face.

 

By now y’all should know what to expect from modern Legends articulation, but what the hell, let’s run through it. It pads out my word count. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double-hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double-hinges in the knees, and swivels in the thighs. The ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab-crunch hinge under the chest, and both a hinge and ball joint in the neck. The thick knee joints can look a little strange when flexed all the way, the elbow joints are a tad spongy, but otherwise, he’s a fun figure to play with.

Bucky comes with two weapons, and these are great examples of how to do Marvel Legends weapons the proper way. They’re wonderfully detailed and look like the equivalent of real world weapons and not weird sci-fi shooters, like the red abomination we got with the MCU version of Winter Soldier. The pistol looks like a M1911 with a textured grip and detailed slide. The rifle looks like an AR-15 carbine with (non) telescoping stock, scope, and a grenade launcher slung under the barrel. These are exactly the kinds of weapons I wish Hasbro would have included with their GI JOE Classified figures!

A lot of the comic-based Legends I’ve looked at lately have been of the quick-and-easy painted costume variety. And yeah, that honestly does work fine for a lot of characters, but it also makes me appreciate a figure like this Winter Soldier all the more. Hasbro just poured on the love in every possible way, from the detailed sculpt to the excellent weapons, and the result is a comic-based figure that stands out even among the MCU releases. He’s quite simply fantastic.