Tag Archives: hasbro

Nov 15 2018

Star Wars (Rogue One): Imperial Combat Assault Tank by Hasbro

I make it no secret that Rogue One is my favorite of all the modern Star Wars flicks. Hell, if you take away the nostalgia boost from A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, it may even be my favorite of all time. But that still didn’t get me to shell out $80 for Hasbro’s Assault Tank because, well… it seemed like an awful lot of money. But Amazon had a Deal of the Day on this baby last week, reducing it to $48 and even then I thought good and hard before finally giving in. Was it worth it? Let’s open it up and find out!

Behold the faux vintage packaging! The old style silver border and the Kenner logo really punches me in the nostalgia button and makes for a very handsome bit of presentation. I also really miss the days when they used to just let pictures of the toy and a bunch of figures do the talking. And because it’s a fully enclosed box, it’s also collector friendly, so I won’t feel tempted to throw it out. Also notice that they finally stopped calling this thing a Hover Tank? Apparently, it was originally supposed to hover in the film, but that got nixed for the final production and I guess the toy companies never got the memo. This resulted in “Hover Tank” appearing on the packaging of the LEGO set and the pilot figure. I kind of wish they kept the name on this package, though. It would have been another cool mistake for the ages, along the lines of the whole 4-LOM/Zuckuss mix-up. Anyway… The tank comes out of the box with very little assembly required, and it can indeed go back in the box, which is always a big plus for me when it comes to this vintage packaging. All you have to do to get the tank ready for action is load up the cargo containers on the back and plug in the guns on the sides. There are no stickers to apply either.

Here she is ready to patrol the streets of your neighborhood and haul away all of your Kyber crystals. The TX-225A “Occupier” Tank doubles as both an armed cargo carrier or troop transport. I’m starting out with it set up first as the former, with the three cargo containers loaded up in the back. My first impression out of the box is that this toy has a real nice heft to it, which hasn’t been the case with most of Hasbro’s vehicles these days. Many of them have had a hollow and cheap plastic feel, but this tank feels solid. It’s a decent size, but not impressively large. I’ll talk about scale again when we load some figures onto it. Beyond that, I’m not sure what to talk about first, the sculpt or the paint, because both stand out right away as being exceptional. Let’s go with the paint first…

It’s all about the weathering, folks. Hasbro dry-brushed the hell out of this thing, giving it tons of wear and tear and making it feel right at home in the used-future of the Star Wars Universe. It’s one of the things most missing from a lot of Hasbro’s vehicles these days, they come out of the box with little to no paint apps and looking all bright and shiny. It tends suck a lot of the character out right out of the designs. Nearly every edge on this tank is painted to look like the finish is scraped down to the bare metal. There are blotches of wear and tear scattered around the body, there are abrasions near the hatches to show frequent use, and even the overall paint job looks like it’s been blasted by Jedha’s harsh climate. This is exactly the kind of personality and craftsmanship that we don’t usually see on Hasbro’s Star Wars vehicles, and it really sets this one apart as being a collector’s piece. It looks like a workhorse that’s been patrolling the streets of the Holy City of that desert moon for years. I love it!

As for the sculpt, there’s some wonderful detail work on the hull that reminds me of some of the old WWII tank models I used to build with my father when I was a kid. You get mesh grating, straps, hatches, panel lines, bolts, and compartments on the sides, just to name some of the highlights. There aren’t any play gimmicks here, just some cool practical features. The vehicle rolls along on two real working rubber treads, which I personally dig a lot more than a hover tank any day! There are double-barreled cannon mounted on each side of the driver compartment and these can swivel 180-degrees to lay down destructive fire in front, above, or behind. You also get a double-barreled cannon peeking out the bottom front section, which can swivel left and right.

There’s a hatch on top that can be removed to allow engine access. The side hatch actually looks like it could open too, but that’s just part of the sculpt. Hasbro even coughed up a lick of paint for some of the components in there. The hatches locks in flush with the body of the vehicle and it actually takes a bit of work to get it open.

Two additional hatches are there for personnel. One allows the driver to pop his head out and see, while the one behind it accommodates the tank commander. These are basically cannon-fodder hatches, or if my old war movie knowledge is applicable, perfect for lobbing grenades into.

The entire plate over the driver compartment is also removable to give you access and also to see how much incredible work Hasbro put into it.  There isn’t an inch of this interior that isn’t packed with detail. There’s grating on the floor, wires and controls on the walls, a shifter lever, control yokes at each seat and a little sticker showing some gauges on the dashboard. If you get all the way in there, you can see a hatch behind the driver’s seat that leads into the back. It doesn’t open, but for a moment, I thought it did.

Also, check out how much detail is sculpted into the inside of the removable hatch! There’s a fan and ventilation system and I love how the filter compartments are sculpted underneath where the vents are on the outside of the panel. This kind of stuff is just so damn cool.

The three cargo containers simply lay in the bed of the tank, but they stay put quite well and are easy to lift out. Removing them allows you to slide the flooring to each side, revealing an area with foot pegs, turning the tank into a troop transport. There are eight pegs in there. We’ll load it up with some troops in a little bit. But first…

Here’s where things get really mind-blowing. One of the cargo containers actually opens and you can remove three of the storage cylinders. I didn’t read a lot about this tank before I bought it and I certainly wasn’t expecting that. That goes double for the fact that you can open each of the three canisters…

…and slide out the Kyber crystals. OK, sure the interiors are made of super soft, gummy plastic. And they don’t really look like anything. But come on, I’d still say that’s going above and beyond! These are the kinds of features that I love in toys. Forget about the electronics and the spring loaded gimmicks. Just give me stuff like this! OK, so we’ve seen all the tank has to offer, let’s take her for a spin with some figures.

For this review, I’m using all 5-POA Rogue One figures. I haven’t been buying many of the 3.75-inch Vintage Collection stuff, and besides, 5-POA is the only way many of the Rogue One figures have been released anyway. These figures fit perfectly in the tank’s driver compartment. The driver seat is raised so that his head will poke out the top of the tank, and I had no trouble replacing the hatch with a Stormtrooper in the co-pilot seat. I’ll likely end up picking up a few of the Vintage Collection Tank Driver, because the 5-POA one is only available as part of the Jedha 4-pack, and he’s the only troop builder in that set.

With the cargo containers removed and the floor plates slid back, the tank will comfortably transport six Stormtroopers in the back. Keep in mind that the foot pegs do not work all that well with the 5-POA figures, nor are they positioned all that well to hold the figures this way. Still, I really dig this as a troop transport and if I dig out a couple of my super-articulated Stormies, I could add a few sitting on the tailgate.

As far as scale is concerned, the tank is definitely a bit undersized, but not by too much. Most of the stills from Rogue One that I consulted show the top of the tank at about the same height as the Stormtroopers escorting it on foot. In the case of the figures, they stand a smidge taller. Personally, I think the figures look fine riding on it, but when they’re walking alongside, it’s when I can see that the vehicle needed to be a bit bigger. It’s not a deal-breaker for me, especially when you consider how many Star Wars vehicles have been down-sized to make the toys work. Although I suppose there’s a case to be made that Hasbro could have scaled this thing properly without breaking the bank, and for $80, they probably should have.

In the end, this is a very, VERY nice toy. The quality and attention to detail feels more in line with the work Hasbro put into the heavy hitters like the huge Millennium Falcon and AT-AT Walkers. Hell, when it comes to the paintwork, I’d say it’s better. And yet I’m still torn on the sense of value here. As nice as it is, my gut reaction tells me that the original MSRP of $80 is WAY too high for this. But then I look at the prices of some of Hasbro’s other recent vehicle releases. Both Kylo Ren’s Silencer from The Last Jedi and the TIE Striker from Rogue One retailed for $50, which is a lot, although granted both of those came with pack-in figures. So grading on the scale of Hasbro’s other ship prices, maybe this one isn’t so bad, but I knew I was never forking over $80 for this. At $48 I’m glad I picked it up, but even at that price, I feel like it should have included a pack-in of the Tank Commander figure.

Nov 12 2018

Marvel Legends (Deluxe Riders): Black Widow and Motorcycle by Hasbro

[ Edit: Shortly after I posted today’s Marvel Monday Review, I heard the news that Stan Lee had passed away. I debated whether or not to post a separate tribute, but the more I tried to outline a piece that measured his impact on my life, the more I found that impact was immeasurable. I grew up reading almost every comic book I could get my hands on, but Fantastic Four and Spider-Man were among my favorites, and those are two books that have stayed with me the longest. But it’s simply impossible for me to recount the ways in which Stan Lee’s creations and imagination helped to influence my life from a child to a middle aged man, and almost every moment in between. I will, however, thank him for the fact that I never really did grow up. I’m 46 and I still read comic books and collect action figures, and have framed posters of Super Heroes on my walls. I’d like to think a big piece of that was because of him. 

I don’t want to look at Stan Lee’s death as a tragedy. We should all be so lucky to live to 95. We should all be so lucky to leave this world with so many adoring fans. We should all be so lucky to leave this world with such an enormous positive impact. But I will say that I will miss him terribly. Obviously, I didn’t know him personally. I never even met him. But his creations represented hope, goodness, justice, morality, and I can say that from what I’ve seen of Stan himself, he struck me as a never ending well of positive energy. It does give me great comfort to know that he lived to see his creations break out of the comic book shops and become so massively mainstream. His influences escaped the comic panels and burst out on 50-foot movie screens across the world. He lived to know that the fruit of his imagination was both boundless and timeless.

I did not know you, Stan Lee, but I loved you. Excelsior! ]

This week’s Marvel Monday is not a random grab, because if this huge box were in with the others, I’d wind up grabbing it every time. Nope, this one has been sitting beside my Legends Unopened Box of Shame and I just decided that this was the week to check it out. So let’s have a look at Black Widow and her motorcycle!

Remember when Toybiz did that line of Marvel Legends Riders? Well, I guess this is kind of like that. Only in that case a lot of the vehicles were pretty shitty. Hasbro seems to be doing it right this time by offering these figures in bigger boxes (and bigger price points!) to get us some really cool, full-sized vehicles. And given the 6-inch Scale of Legends it should come as no surprise that they’ve all been motorcycles so far, but I’m not complaining. The packaging looks great, it’s collector friendly, and it really shows off the goods splendidly. So let’s open this set up and start out with the figure.

I was expecting a straight repack of Natasha in this set, but we actually get an all new figure. And with all the Black Widows in my Legends collection, I’m happy to say that she still manages to bring a new look to the table. Indeed, this version strikes me as a nice balance between a classic version and a cutting-edge modern MCU version. Her bracers are silver and made to look like angled metal. These remind me of the ones she had in her earliest appearances. On the other hand the high collar and low zipper give her a bit more of a modern flare. The rest of the costume is just a black body suit and the painted belt consists of silver discs and the red Black Widow emblem. The costume is clean and simple, but looks great.

You get two different head sculpts, one with short hair and one with long hair, and I really dig them both. The paint applications for the eyes, eyebrows, and lips is all quite sharp, and there’s a little wash to bring out the detail in her red hair. The only thing here I don’t like is the big ugly seam that’s running down the center of her neck. Seriously, Hasbro? You couldn’t have hid that a little better?

You get standard Legends female articulation. That includes rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs have ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double hinges in the knees, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. There is no waist swivel, but you do get a ball joint just under the chest, and the neck has both a hinge and ball joint. I’ve had the legs pop out at the hips a couple of times while posing her, but they pop right back in. It’s a shame she doesn’t have any guns, but the extra head is the figure’s only “accessory,” unless you count the motorcycle!

Like the figure, the motorcycle goes above and beyond what I was expecting. It’s a sporty bike with a red, gun-metal gray, and lighter gray deco, and you even get a Black Widow emblem on the right side near the front. Other nice touches include stickers for the instrument gauges, a tinted yellow headlamp cover, and I do believe the tires are made of rubber! Sculpted details include the engine and the chain drive, as well as a textured seat. The steering wheel turns the front wheel, you get a flip down kickstand, and holy hell, the suspension on the front wheel actually works!

Even with all that good stuff, I think what delights me the most about this set is how well Natasha can fit on the bike. There’s no compromising here. I can get her to hold the handlebars, keep her tushie on the seat, and have both feet on the foot pegs and she looks she looks totally natural on it. The only thing worth noting here is that Natasha works better on the bike with the shorter hair, as it allows her to look up more. Also, that long hair should be flowing in the breeze when she’s riding, so it doesn’t quite work on the bike anyway.

Even with pumping out an obscene number of figures, Hasbro is still looking for new ways to grow the Legends brand, and I think that’s fantastic! Especially in this day and age when vehicles are getting scarce in the toy aisles. What’s even better is this set seems to be around $30 at most retailers, I picked it up for a few bucks less, but either way it feels like quite a deal. The figure is excellent, and when you consider that Legends figures sell for around $20 these days, that leaves only about $10 for the bike. Not bad at all! It’s also got me pretty pumped to pick up the Wolverine and Ghost Rider sets then next time I see them!

Nov 5 2018

Marvel Legends (Thanos Wave): Iron Spider by Hasbro

It’s just another Marvel Monday, but I wish it was Sunday cuz that’s my fun day. Actually Mondays are pretty fun because I get to open another random Legends figure off my pile. Today my grubby mitts went into the “To Open” box and drew back Spider-Man from Infinity War! Ok, this one probably wasn’t so random because it’s the last figure I dropped into the box and I didn’t give it a good stir before picking today.

I can’t even begin to tell you how frustrating it was for me to get this figure. I never saw him on the pegs and, for the longest time, this Webhead was going for upward of $40 on Amazon. I finally grabbed him off another retailer who got some singles in and wouldn’t you know it, the next week he started selling on Amazon for the regular MSRP. That’s pretty par for the course when it comes to my luck with these Infinity War figures. Hell, I’m still hunting down Captain America and he’s usually the over-produced peg warmer of the wave.

So, here’s Spidey out of the box and right away, I have some issues. The figure features some extensive texturing, which feels all wrong. From memory, the Iron Spider suit in Infinity War was pretty slick and smooth. I checked a few stills and even the pictures of the upcoming Hot Toys version (which are usually a pretty good source for accuracy) and I think I’m justified as saying the texturing isn’t supposed to be there. It looks more like one of the older suits. Now with that having been said, I think the coloring is pretty good. I like the shade of red they used and the gold trim is neatly painted, especially around the spider logo. On the downside, this is one of those instances where Hasbro doesn’t paint the pegs, which is really obvious on the insides of the sleeves and the lower pegs on the knees where they interrupt the gold striping. Overall, not a bad looking figure, but not one that really conveys the suit from the movie to me.

The head sculpt just looks cheap to me. Once again, the texturing feels wrong, and while the web pattern shouldn’t be blackened, it should be more pronounced than it is here. The crazy amount of mold flashing hanging off my figure’s seam-lines also don’t help to instill a feeling of care and quality. The previous MCU Spidey gave us two heads to depict the eyes wide and narrowed. Here we just get the one noggin.

Fortunately, the articulation here is everything I expect from a Legends Spidey. I wasn’t sure they were going to put the shoulder crunches in this one, but they did and that makes me happy. The legs have ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double hinges in the knees, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. The arms have rotating hinges in shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. As a result, Iron Spider is pretty fun to play around with!

So here comes the real sucky part. Iron Spider comes with absolutely no extras. No swappable fists, no second head, and the biggest crime? He does not come with his additional mechanical legs. Hasbro has set a bit of a precedent for extras with our Spidey Legends so when they don’t include them, it hurts the value. But not including his mechanical legs is something I just can’t overlook. It’s the coolest thing about this suit and they featured prominently in the film. Hell, I’m pretty sure even the shitty Titan figure got those legs.

After hunting so long for him, Iron Spider turned out to be quite a letdown. He’s a nice looking figure, but the texturing on the suit feels wrong and the lack of extras really hurts. For what was the biggest and coolest costume reveals for me in Infinity War, this figure deserved to be so much better. It’s still bewildering to me that Hasbro could have released this one without the mechanical legs. Even if they were just a static piece that plugged into the back, that would have been better than nothing. It’s not like Hasbro to drop the ball in this line, especially not with the MCU versions of the characters, but here’s one that needs an instant do-over.

Oct 29 2018

Marvel Legends: AIM Scientist and AIM Trooper by Hasbro

Once again, I’m setting aside random chance and bumping some new Marvel Legends figures to the head of the line. Why? Because I just couldn’t wait to open this set, and it’s nice to be current and topical every now and then before going back to opening figures from four waves ago that no one is interested in anymore. Not to mention, I’ve been carrying a little grudge against the AIM Trooper ever since he was first released and absolutely impossible for me to find and now I can finally set all that ill-will to rest.

Behold… the AIM two-pack! If you remember the Hydra two-pack from not that long ago, then the idea and format behind this set should be familiar. Like the Hydra set, this one re-packs a popular troop builder and sort of kitbashes another one, while tossing in a whole bunch of recycled stuff to buff out your forces. The packaging features a large window that shows all the goodies laid out over an illustrated backdrop, and boy does it show off a lot of stuff! Is it a shameless cash-grab, or an opportunity to build up your AIM forces? Well, why can’t it be both? Let’s start with the AIM scientist.

Keep in mind, the AIM Scientist isn’t a straight repack of the 2014 figure. The sculpt appears to be the same, but there are some paint differences. And since I don’t have the previous release for comparisons, this figure is basically all new to me and I am absolutely in love with this figure. I don’t know if it’s because of how much I dig the crazy concept of AIM, their goofy beekeeper costumes, or that I’ve built up so much anticipation over this figure in my mind. Maybe it’s a combination of all three. Whatever the case, the AIM Scientist features a yellow jumpsuit with a sculpted button down front flap on the chest, a stylish black and yellow belt, high black collar, tall black boots with buckles and pointed toes, and black gauntlets that reach up to his elbows. It’s a sharp looking suit, and I’m not ashamed to say I dig the yellow and black deco. After all, why do all evil organizations need to dress in dark and sinister colors?

In addition to the stock costume, the Scientist features a brown shoulder strap with some sculpted pouches on the front and back and some silver canister grenades. The stock head features the iconic flat-topped bee-keeper’s hood with a textured screen pattern over the visor. There are other head options, but I’ll come back to that a little later. Also, the articulation here is standard stuff, and since I have so much to cover today, I’ll just be lazy and refer you back to any of my other 200+ Marvel Legends reviews where you’ll get a good idea about what to expect. Suffice it to say, the poseability is great. Now, let’s check out some weapons!

I’m pretty sure we’ve seen this rifle before, and I think I remember throwing some shade at it in the past, but I think it fits in pretty well with the AIM crowd. It looks futuristic and like something AIM would have cooked up. I also absolutely love it in the yellow and black deco. It brings out the details in the sculpt beautifully and the blue paint applications show that little bit of extra care that Hasbro doesn’t always show toward the Legends weapons. It’s also branded “AIM” on the side. I love that!

Next up, you get this crazy pistol and I’m not as big a fan of this one. I guess I can give it a pass because, again it’s unconventional design works well for an AIM weapon. Here the blue paint on the end of the barrel makes it look a little toyish, similar to the orange plugs they put into toy guns these days. Not bad, but not my favorite.

And that brings me to my least favorite weapon in the box, and that’s this little shotgun with the drum magazine. Once again, I do appreciate that Hasbro actually branded it, “AIM,” on the drum, but mine came right out of the package all warped and with a droopy barrel. I also don’t think the yellow works as well on this weapon. Maybe if they had added some black, but as it is, this little gun is getting tossed into The Tote of Forgotten Accessories™. Before moving on to the next figure, let’s take a look at just two more accessories…

The set includes this backpack and brown shoulder straps. The straps are a separate piece and fit onto the figure pretty easily, while the backpack simply pegs into the back through a hole in the shoulder rig. You can, of course, use the backpack without the shoulder rig, but I think it compliments it very well. Also, while the rig will work with the shoulder strap, I found it’s better to take the shoulder strap off. In case you don’t recognize it, this backpack is recycled from the fairly recent Deathlok figure, and I have to say the deco does a decent job of obscuring that fact. It’s cast in yellow plastic, and in keeping with the AIM equipment theme, it has some blue paint apps, as well as silver paint on the central piece. Pretty cool! Now lets move on to the AIM Trooper…

Or AIM Shock Trooper, as he’s referred to on the back of the package. From the neck down, this fellow is a straight repaint of Paladin from the Sasquatch Wave and, while some may scoff, I wholeheartedly approve. Paladin’s tactical suit works brilliantly here in it’s new black and yellow deco, complete with the molded holster on his left thigh and the integral sheath on his right leg armor. Nope, Hasbro didn’t tweak a thing here when it comes to the sculpt, but there’s some great stuff here and I still really dig the texturing on the armor plates. The color scheme favors black a lot more than the traditional AIM Scientist uniform but I think it’s faithful enough to still conform to AIM dress codes. Some extra paint hits include the sculpted straps and buckles that hold on the chest and back armor, as well as some silver paint on the holster’s thigh straps. And hey, at least they didn’t repack the figure with the Paladin head, right?

Oooh. Oh no. That’s a bold move, Hasbro! The Paladin head is indeed included with a AIM-ified black and yellow paint job and some light blue for the goggles. It works OK, but I think it works better as an unmasked head for the Scientist.

Yeah, that looks good and it’s not quite as “on the nose” as using it with the Paladin body. Until I get at least one more of these sets, I won’t be displaying this head at all, but I’m not going to totally dismiss the idea of using it once I have some more AIM Troopers. Besides, the AIM Trooper comes packaged with a much better choice, if you ask me.

The stock head is from the 2016 release of Scourge/Demolition Man and I think it looks pretty damn cool with the AIM deco and it looks especially appropriate for the Paladin body. This is very likely the head I’ll go with for this figure, but you do get one more option.

And that’s the second Beekeeper head. To be honest, I didn’t think this head was going to work at all on this figure, but I’m not hating it. Not at all! OK, so enough with the head talk, let’s check out this guy’s weapons…

I’ve already mentioned that he has Paladin’s holster and sheath, so obviously he comes with Paladin’s pistol and combat knife. No complaints here, as these are both great little weapons. The knife’s hilt is painted yellow while the pistol’s receiver is painted yellow. It’s all part of pushing that AIM brand!

The AIM Trooper also comes with a rifle and this is one we’ve seen before and which I’ve never liked, but I’m not really hating it here. Once again, it’s the odd design that works pretty well as some kind of strange AIM invention. And like the AIM Soldier’s rifle, this one is also branded with AIM on the side. With a few of these rifles consigned to the Tote of Forgotten Accessories™, it’s nice to have one version that I actually like. And obviously, while I refer to some weapons belonging to the Trooper and some to the Scientist, that’s just based on their proximity on the tray. Sure, Paladin’s knife and pistol are meant to go with the Trooper, but the rest are free to be mixed and matched as you like.

And before wrapping up, the AIM Trooper also comes with his own shoulder rig to work with the backpack. I’ve got to say, I think it looks much better on this guy and it was probably intended for him from the start. Still, it’s nice to have the option to put it on either figure.

I remember an odd amount of collector backlash over the Hydra set and I’m not sure if the same will be the case here. Personally, I couldn’t be happier with this release. Not only did it finally get the AIM Scientist into my collection, and not only does it give me an opportunity to get a few more, but Hasbro created a pretty cool original design for the AIM Trooper. I try not to do a lot of troop building these days, because I’m so tight on space, but I’m definitely going to be on the hunt for more of these. Besides, the $43 I paid for this set ain’t too far off what the original AIM Scientist was going for when I was hunting him.

Oct 22 2018

Marvel Legends (Cull Obsidian Wave): Thor by Hasbro

It’s Monday again and that means it’s time for another random Marvel Legends review here at FFZ. This week my sticky fingers caught hold of another figure from the Cull Obsidian Wave, and it’s Thor from Infinity War! I’ve already checked out Ant-Man, Wasp, and Black Widow from this wave, so I’m finally more than halfway done. But with opening only one of these a week, it feels like Avengers 4 will be out before I even finish with the Infinity War figures.

And here’s the beautiful Pirate-Angel himself in the package, and between the figure, accessory, and BAF part, this tray is pretty damn full. This is actually the second version of Thor that Hasbro has released from Infinity War. The other is part of a three-pack with Rocket and Groot, and don’t worry I’ll get around to opening that one eventually.

Thor’s look has changed a bit throughout the films, and for me, I don’t think anything has surpassed his look in the original Avengers. That suit is so colorful and regal and it’s the one version of the character I display on my Hot Toys shelf. But I get the reason for costume changes. It not only sells new toys, but from a tonal standpoint, bright and colorful Thor would not have looked right in a film like Infinity War.

With all that having been said, this suit is fine, it’s just a little drab and boring to me. The chest armor is black, the trousers are black, the boots are black, the wrist bracers are black. The only real color being expressed here is the metallic silver used for his armored sleeves and the bit of red trim around the shoulders of the cape and the discs where they attach. And of course the cape itself. What’s a little frustrating here is that even though there’s so little paint on the figure, they still managed to get sloppy with the red around the trim of the discs where the cape attaches. There is, however, a nice little metallic sheen around the armor and the boots have a bit of a dark coppery wash to them.

The head sculpt here is excellent in terms of detail and realism, and I think it hits the mark pretty close on likeness. Here, Thor looks a tad older and more haggard, but it’s close enough for me. Indeed, I think it’s impressive how much Hasbro’s Hemsworth sculpt has improved in the short time since the Ragnarok figures were on the pegs. The painted skin tone is so much better than the waxy bare plastic we’ve seen in the past, the hair sculpt is extremely well done, and you even get a little bit of scar showing over the right eye. And yes, this is Thor after Rocket gave him a replacement eye.

Articulation holds few surprises, but let’s run down the points anyway. The legs have ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double hinges in the knees, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. There is no swivel in the waist, but you do get a ball joint under the chest. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and double hinges in the elbows. The neck is both hinged and ball jointed.

Thor comes with his brand new weapon, Stormbreaker and it is a beautiful accessory. The blade is cast in a satin-metallic silver and I really dig the way the handle (Groot’s severed arm) weaves itself around the head. I think this is one of the best looking accessories I’ve seen out of Legends in a long while.

Stormbreaker also comes with a lightning effect part, cast in soft blue translucent plastic and molded so that it can be snaked around the weapon. Some of you may know that I’m seldom impressed with the effect parts that Hasbro occasionally bundles with these figures, so it’s probably no surprise that this one will be going into the dreaded and bottomless Tote of Forgotten Accessories™. Hey, it’s fine and I’m never going to argue about getting something extra with a figure, but I just don’t have a lot of use for these things.

I like this figure a lot, but I’m mainly coming away really wishing that Hasbro would take another crack at The Avengers Thor. They’ve upped their game so much since the days of that Walmart Exclusive wave, I’d like to see my favorite version of The Mightiest Avenger get a re-do. Then again, I’m not sure I want to open the can of worms where I’m re-buying all these characters again. I mean, I’m already so hopefully behind on buying and opening this line of figures, that maybe we should just leave things well enough alone. Suffice it to say this is a solid enough figure and he’ll look great alongside the rest of the Infinity War crew when I finally get them all together and set up.

Oct 17 2018

Star Wars Black (Solo): Moloch by Hasbro

Solo may have had disappointing returns at the Box Office, but I enjoyed the hell out of it, and Hasbro is still supporting it with their 6-inch Black Series. Not only are we getting a second wave of figures hitting soon, and not long around the film’s home release, but Target is offering a Deluxe Exclusive of Moloch, the Grindalid Enforcer of the White Worms!

Like Target’s other Black Series Exclusive, Moloch comes in a larger, bulkier version of the standard Black Series box. As this is an exclusive, there’s no number on the side, but you do get a little bio blurb on the back and the package is totally collector friendly. The wider box allows this larger figure to be viewed through the window beside his accessories and I think he displays great in the package. I may actually keep this box!

And he’s not too shabby out of the box either! I thought this Moloch had a cool design in the film and Hasbro has translated it to action figure form quite nicely. He has sculpted plastic robes with a an additional layer cast in a sleeveless soft plastic with the sleeves sculpted onto the arms. It gives the figure’s outfit a lot of depth and the robes themselves feature some texturing as well as sculpted stitch lines. You can even see his sleeves protruding from the shorter sleeves of the robe. He’s also wearing sculpted gloves with reinforced leather-like patches on the backs of his hands.

Moloch looks like a humanoid, but looks can be deceiving. He’s apparently the same species as Lady Proxima, and that means that he’s really just a big worm with arms. If you peek under the robes, you won’t see legs, but just a big, bloated worm body and I really dig that. The stubby worm legs actually run all the way up his body. Here’s a case where I really wish Hasbro had gone for softgoods for this Moloch’s robes. It would have allowed me to get a much better look at the worm body under there, but I suppose you could argue that the costume wouldn’t have looked as good. Either way, being a worm means that there aren’t a lot of points of articulation on this fellow. The arms have the usual rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, but apart from a ball joint in the waist, that’s all you get.

The figure comes unmasked in the package, but I started out with his face all closed up. The covered worm body protrudes out of the robes and hunches over to have the “head” encased in a giant ring and mask with breathing apparatus. There’s some particularly nice attention to detail here in the sculpt. The surface of the mask looks pitted and old in some areas, there’s further detailing on the flat “nose” piece, and the segmented tubes that come out the sides are a nice touch. The bulk of the mask is not removable, but the face plate can be taken off to get a look at Moloch’s real mug inside.

And it turns out he’s a blue-eyed slug. Hasbro did a fantastic job with the sculpting and paint on the worm head. He’s got some cool wrinkling around his eyes and a pair of slits for nostrils. The skin tone has some different shades and there’s a slightly glossy finish, which makes the plastic look like honest-to-god alien worm skin. Obviously, the removable mask isn’t a surprise, since the figure comes packaged with it off, but this feature still delighted me to no end and goes a long way to make this figure feel like it’s worth the Deluxe price tag.

In addition to the removable mask, Moloch comes with two more accessories. The first is this staff. I’m not sure if this is meant to be a weapon, like a mace, or just some kind of badge of office, and I’m not even sure what the disgusting mass is supposed to be at the end. He may just run around threatening to touch people with it. Either way, he can hold it well in his left hand.

The second accessory is his blaster pistol, which can be worn on the holster on his belt. I’ve been a big fan of the blaster designs in some of the new Star Wars movies in general, but definitely in Rogue One and Solo in particular, and this little gun is a good example of why. It’s not what I would consider a conventional Star Wars design, but it has that same sense of a realistic looking firearm modified with sci-fi bits. I also really dig that they actually painted the wood grips.

Unlike the other Deluxe Target Exclusive in this line, Moloch was really easy for me to find. My Target had three of him on the shelf and he’s still been there the last few times I’ve been through the toy aisle. Granted, he’s not an army builder and maybe not as iconic a character as that Green Space Pig, but he is in excellent figure and I’m very glad I picked him up. The extra $10 he runs is somewhat justified by the larger size of the figure, although I can’t help but think that if this was a Marvel Legends he would have been the same price as a regular figure. I think the biggest missed opportunity is not giving him a Corellian Hound. I would have happily ponied up a little extra to get one of them!

Oct 15 2018

Marvel Legends (Thanos Wave): Songbird by Hasbro

After a slight detour, I’m back to metaphorically spinning the non-existent Wheel of Legends and randomly picking another figure from my enormous backlog to open. And as you already know by the title, my grubby paw emerged from the big box of Hasbro goodness clutching onto Songbird from The Thanos Wave!

I love me some Thunderbolts and ever since Hasbro released a Legends version of that team back in 2013 at SDCC, I’m always happy to add some more members. And along comes Songbird who admittedly feels a little out of place in this wave. I’m never sure how Hasbro decides to drop certain characters into certain waves, but it’s clear that they play the themes of these waves fast and loose, and hey… if it allows them to slip in a comic character we might otherwise not get, I’m all for it. I’ve got nothing much to say about the packaging, other than she looks great framed on the tray with her giant effect part behind her.

I feel like Melissa’s been wearing this costume (or a close variation of it) since forever. Or at least since she cast off her goofy greens from her Screaming Mimi days and began dolling out Justice like Lightning!™ And why not? This black and white bodysuit is a clean, sexy, and modern look that stands the test of time. Hasbro did a nice job recreating it mostly in paint, with bright and vibrant whites and sharp lines around the black bits. Even the lines around those black crescents on the outside of her legs are razor sharp. I’m also happy to report there’s no bleed-through in the white, which is pretty common with white paint on darker bucks. Extra sculpting comes in the form of her gold accessories. These include her segmented arm bracers, her belt, and her shoulders, of which the later two are separate pieces. The deco is rounded out with a little pink paint on her neck piece and belt.

The head sculpt is quite good too! Ms. Gold is sporting some full lips and green eyes. Like her suit, the paint here is pretty sharp and clean. They also did a nice job painting the highlights in her hair, which is sculpted to fall about her shoulders and down her back fairly naturally. It does, unfortunately inhibit some of the neck articulation, so it’s not too easy to get her looking up when in a flight pose.

And speaking of articulation, Songbird holds no surprises in that department. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, swivels in the thighs, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. There is no waist swivel, but there is a ball joint under the chest, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. She’s lots of fun to pose, but I do wish she came with a second pair of hands. The ones she has work well for flight, but optional fists would have been welcome additions.

As we already saw in the packaged shot, Songbird comes with one big accessory and that’s her energy wings. This effect part is just one big piece of translucent pink plastic, which pegs into the hole in her back and looks pretty damn nice. It does maker her a tad back-heavy, but I was able to get her standing with it without too much trouble.

Getting a comic-inspired Songbird in what is more or less an MCU Infinity War themed wave was a really nice surprise. I mean, can you even imagine what the meeting with the retailers must look like? Hasbro: “Infinity War is going to be the biggest movie event of the year. The kids are going to want to relive it with the action figures!” Walmart Rep: “I like it! What’ve you got?” Hasbro: “Spider-Man! Thor! Iron Man!” Rep: “Brilliant!” Hasbro: “And Songbird!” Rep: “Who the hell is that? Is she in the picture?” Hasbro: “Well…” It’s yet another example of how Hasbro is treating this line as a labor of love and willing to take risks to get as many characters out to the fans as possible.

Oct 13 2018

Transformers “Power of the Primes” Abominus Combined!

Well, it took me a month, but I finally got through my look at Hasbro’s modern updates to the Terrorcons. These four Deluxe and their Voyager Class leader were all great figures on their own, but the real treat of getting them all together is combining them into Abominus and that’s what I’m going to do today! Hasbro’s modern Combiners have been pretty hit-or-miss with me. I loved Superion, Defensor, and Bruticus, and I thought Computron was solid, but I wasn’t a big fan of Menasor. Here’s hoping that Abominus turns out to be another win!

Of course, the Combiner Wars and Power of the Primes combiners are inspired by the old Scramble City design, which means that the limbs can be combined any way you like. Arm? Leg? Doesn’t matter. When it comes to the combiners that I’m familiar with (like Superion, Menasor, or Computron), I’m a real stickler on which figure becomes what based on the Sunbow cartoon series. But as I’ve noted a few times during my Terrorcon reviews that I never owned the original Terrorcon toys, nor are the characters all that meaningful to me. I was a teenager and getting out of Transformers by the time these guys were released, so I’m just doing my own thing here. And after some experimenting, I’ve found a combination that I dig the most and I’m going with that one. So I’ll apologize in advance if this isn’t the configuration most people are looking for.

Whatever configuration you choose, I have to say he’s quite spectacular. Not only do I think he’s pretty well proportioned (apart from those tiny feet!), but he holds together beautifully and can stand without toppling over like Menasor loved to do. I went with Blot and Sinnertwin as the legs because they strike me as the bulkiest and I think their leg modes compliment each other pretty well.  Meanwhile, I like the way Cutthroat’s wings look coming off the shoulder as well as Rippersnapper’s guns angled up off the other. I also used their respective Prime Armor as the hands, just to match the deco of the arms.

Hun-Gurrr makes for a fantastic torso. His pinkish slab of chest has some great detail on it, including the circular vents in the abdomen and the paint paint hits, which include silver, red, blue, and yellow all look great. I especially love the little twin Decepticon insignia that appear on the outsides of the chest, as well as the larger one on his right hip and the rub sign on his left. The contoured shoulders are quite distinctive and the foil stickers are a great touch. For a combiner made of up five really solid figures with really solid alt modes, I’m surprised Abominus turned out so well. It feels like very little (if anything) was sacrificed here to make it all work.

The head is a nice homage to the original toy, especially the helmet, which features the long side vents and extended antenna. The face is rather organic looking with a very pronounced chin and a yellow visor in place of eyes. The antenna are made of rubbery plastic and mine are a tad warped, but nothing too bad.

Alas, the stability of this guy really takes a hit when I started to pose him, which is why I really couldn’t do a lot with him for the pictures. The ratchets in his hips aren’t very subtle or strong, so the moment I put him in a wider stance, they give out and he either does a split or topples over. As a result, he’s not the most interesting toy to pose and photograph, but I’m still not too bummed out about it. He stands fine in neutral poses and that will work for when I choose to display him in combined mode. Another real plus is ho well he stays together. Even after playing around with him for quite a while, I never had any of his limbs detach or his shoulders come apart. That’s a lot more than I can say for most of the Combiner Wars Gestalts, and that goes a long way to make for a fun toy!

Abominus was a wonderful surprise, as I thought Hasbro would have been more or less done with combiners at the end of the Combiner Wars. Of all Hasrbo’s modern Combiners, I’d rank Abominus pretty high. Superion still holds the top spot for me, but I’d probably put this Terrorcon Gestalt on par with Bruticus as a close second. He looks fantastic and he holds together well enough that he’s actually fun to play around with. Sure, I’d love more stability in action poses, but when everything else is so good, I’m willing to accept compromise. I rarely display any of my combiner teams in their Gestalt modes, but here’s one where I’d be tempted to do it. And with that said, I’m going to be taking a little break from Transformers for the rest of the month as I try to get through some other things. I still have some unfinished business with Power of the Primes. Reviews of Leader Class Optimus Prime and Rodimus, as well as Predaking are all coming, but probably not until November.

Oct 12 2018

Transformers “Power of the Primes” Hun-Gurrr by Hasbro

It’s Friday again, Toyhounds, and I’m more than ready for the weekend. I’ve clawed my way through another hellacious work week and now it’s time to reward myself by opening up a brand new Robochangeformer. I’ve spent the last five weeks or so checking out the four Deluxe Terrorcons and that just leaves their leader, the mighty Hun-Gurrr. Let’s see if I can make it through the whole review without messing up the number of r’s at the end of his name, eh?

As the leader of the Terrorcon Combiner team, Hun-Gurrr is a Voyager Class and comes in a pretty standard Voyager Class window box.  He’s packaged in his robot mode, and you get some fantastic artwork of his double-headed beast mode on the front with epic sparks behind him and green flame shooting out of one of his mouths. It’s all very metal. The package is collector friendly, but be sure to have some snippers handy to cut all those plastic ties that are holding him into the tray. Let’s jump right in and check out his robot mode…

Hun-Gurrr’s robot mode takes the basic elements of the G1 toy and adds plenty of polish to make for a more stylized and all around better looking bot. The shoulders are a bit less pronounced and the legs are less blocky and a lot more interesting too. But the biggest improvement for me is the chest. The beast mode’s tail forms the middle of the torso, and I think it’s very reminiscent of the way some Decepticon jets wear their cockpit on their chests. Very cool! And while I do indeed like this robot mode well enough, I can’t help admit that the proportions are off. His arms and upper body look incredibly bulky when compared to his rather diminutive legs. It looks like a lot of weight for those chopsticks to handle, and his feet seem even smaller still! Now, it’s not a deal-breaker for me by any means, but I think the disconnect between his upper and lower half keeps him from being a top-shelf design.

From the back, Hun-Gurrr looks pretty good. He does have a boxy, but manageable, backpack, which is made up from the collapsed chest piece of his torso mode. He’s got some hollow leg syndrome going on, but I love how the lower jaws of the beast mode heads form heel spurs to keep him stable. And so while those feet are kind of puny, they do a fine job of keeping this bot upright. One more thing that I’m not all that fond of here is the way the beast feet hang off the backs of his forearms without really locking into place. It’s not uncommon for these to be flapping in the breeze while I’m posing this guy. A couple of clips would have worked wonders there. As for the deco, well it’s mostly faithful to the original toy with a muted combination of off-white and dark gray with some pinkish accents. We also get some metallic blue paint hits on the shoulders and foil stickers on the sides of his lower legs, that really make things pop. Finally, Hun-Gurrr features a foil Decepticon insignia sticker on each shoulder, with the left one being a rub sign.

Hun-Gurrr’s head sculpt is a decent nod back to the original toy’s portrait. The only thing painted here is his silver visor, the rest is left as bare pink plastic. The face has sunken cheeks and is rather angular with a pronounced chin and nose. The facial features are a little soft, and it’s not one of my favorite head sculpts in this assortment, but I still like it well enough.

Sadly, Hun-Gurrr doesn’t come with a rifle, but he does come with two Prime Armor pieces (also serving as Abominus’ feet), which can attach to his arms to form double blasters. I do like these pieces, but they add to his already bulky upper body. They also have a slot to plug in the Terrorcon Enigma and one other Prime Master, if you’re into that kind of thing. All in all, these work well as weapons, but I would have preferred a rifle. Let’s move on to the beast mode!

Hun-Gurrr’s alt mode is a four-legged wingless dragon thing and… hey… we’ve seen this before. Yup, this is extremely similar to Sinnertwin’s alt mode and I always thought it was weird having two such similar cyber-beasties on the same team. Still, between the larger size, vastly different deco, and skewed proportions, I think the two are distinctive enough from each other to make it work. Sinnertwin kept a fair balance between body and heads, whereas Hun-Gurrr’s necks and heads really dominate.

That’s not to say I’m totally in love with this alt mode. When you know what you’re looking at, it should be pretty obvious that it’s more or less the robot mode standing on his hands with his legs up in the air. The biggest issue I have is that the design doesn’t do anything to hide the robot mode’s pelvic area. Plus, the tiny, atrophied front legs just look weird to me. Still, the beast heads are a lot more fun on this mode than what we got on Sinnertwin and knowing that this design is in effect a triple changer with a torso mode, I’m willing to forgive a lot.

Hun-Gurrr rounds out the Terrorcon package pretty nicely. To me, he isn’t the high point of this team, but considering how much I’ve loved these figures, that’s not something to be ashamed of. He’s still a very good figure and a whole lot of fun. And that seems to be a running theme with Hasbro these days. The Deluxe Class figures have been mostly excellent while the Voyager Class figures have ranged from solid to underwhelming. Of course, I still have one more thing left to look at before I’m finished with the Terrorcons, so come on back sometime tomorrow and I’ll combine them to form… ABOMINUS!!!

Oct 8 2018

Marvel Legends: The Thing by Hasbro

Once again, I have to put the random Marvel Legends reviews on hold as I push a figure to the head of the line. And it should come as no surprise that I’m doing that for Ben Grimm. To know me is to know how much I adore the Fantastic Four. It’s that one comic that most captured my heart as a child and kept me coming back for more, right up until it was shit-canned over copyright-politics. Hopefully that’s getting hammered out now with the recent shifts in the big corporate landscape. But either way, I’ve dreamed about a Marvel Legends re-do of Marvel’s First Family ever since the line came back and now thanks to some exclusive releases through Walgreens, of all places, Ben Grimm marks the last release of the Marvel Legends Fantastic Four!

And oh man, I couldn’t be happier to be holding this. For the most part, finding the Walgreens exclusives hasn’t been too difficult for me. I was able to pick up most of them at the store around the corner from my home and a couple I grabbed off their website. Ben was a little tougher, but after hitting a Walgreens about ten minutes away, I believe I found a new untapped source because they had piles of Legends and quite a few of their past exclusives. I think a big reason finding this set me at ease is because I was afraid of how much I would have been willing to pay for it on the secondary market if it came to that. The packaging is the same as we’ve been getting all along, and Ben is quite possibly the largest figure I’ve seen crammed into one of these window boxes. Not to mention the extra parts really push that tray to its limits. There’s a Walgreens Exclusive sticker on the window and not much else to say, other than bye-bye to this packaging, because it’s clobbering time!

Here’s Ben out of the box and looking damned near perfect. When it comes to the sculpt here, there’s nothing at all for me to pick at. His costume consists only of his blue shorts with a black waistband and the rest of the figure is covered in glorious orange rock. The craggy skin is chock full of detail with an intricate network of crevices running between the rocky scales all picked out by a dark paint wash. The orange used for the skin is brilliant and combines with the blue shorts to make for a very colorful figure that looks like he just jumped out of a Marvel comic panel.

The Thing comes with two heads, both of which capture the character perfectly, complete with prominent craggy brow and baby blue eyes. The first head features a slightly neutral expression, although he still looks mildly pissed off. The second head is full on Clobbering Time with teeth exposed and a gaze that says he’s looking to do some damage. Honestly, I probably would have been perfectly happy with either head, and it’s a real treat that with all the original sculpting that went into this big boy, Hasbro still managed to sneak the extra portrait in there.

The same could be said for the extra set of hands. Ben comes with a set of fists and a set of open, clutching hands. Had they just mixed and matched these, I would have been fine with that, but the ability to swap out either or both is just a wonderful bonus. These also work well with the articulation for coming up with all sorts of clobbering poses. And if I had one thing about the figure that I absolutely had to nitpick, I would say that the rotating hinges in the elbows don’t offer the range of motion that double-hinges would have. Although, I will concede that the existing elbow points don’t interrupt the sculpt as much as the other option would have. Either way, it’s a compromise that I’ll happily accept.

Besides the elbows, the articulation here is right on par with most of Marvel Legends‘ big boys. The shoulders have rotating hinges, the wrists have hinged pegs. There are no bicep swivels, but that’s where the rotating hinge elbows come in. The torso features a swivel at the waist and a ball joint under the chest. The neck has both a hinge and a ball joint. Finally, the legs feature double hinges in the knees, swivels at the bottoms of the shorts, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles to help keep his big feets flat on the ground.

I try not to throw around the word “perfect” a lot when I talk about my toys, as it tends to cheapen the word, but I’m going to go ahead and roll it out for this review. I thing Hasbro did a fabulous job with The Thing. I’d like to think that’s not just my love of the comic and the character creating bias, but rather just recognition of a job well done. The sculpt and coloring are spot on and including the extra head and hands with what is already a big figure with so much new sculpting, well that just goes above and beyond!