Tag Archives: hasbro

Nov 13 2023

G. I. JOE Classified: Shipwreck by Hasbro

Nature abhors a vacuum, and so do action figure companies. So, with my Star Wars Black Series and Marvel Legends collecting dropping off, GI JOE Classified has stepped up to fill those gaps and help Hasbro to keep sucking out all my monies. There have just been so many quality releases out of this line and they just keep coming! Today I’m checking out Classified Shipwreck, and some may be surprised to find that this is another character where I did not own the vintage RAH figure when I was a kid. Indeed, the first time I added a Shipwreck figure to my collection would have been as an adult collector with the 25th Anniversary release.

Shipwreck comes in the usual plastic free packaging, including a cardboard footlocker to stow his gear. I love these boxes and I’ve been keeping them for now, but I think eventually they will need to go. Maybe I’ll just flatten them all out and tuck them somewhere. Anyway, it’s hard for me to put a finger on why I never owned the vintage version of Shipwreck. He was a 1985 release, so he turned up on shelves just at the cusp of when I was starting to lose interest in toys, but he was so prominently featured in the Sunbow cartoon. Maybe it was because I was never a big fan of the character, and I think I used to just use Cutter as a stand in. Anyway, let’s scrape the barnacles off this box and see what we’ve got!

True to form, Shipwreck hits all the beats of the vintage figure with his blue trousers, lighter blue short sleeved shirt, and black gloves. The trousers here are textured to look more like jeans and less like a uniform, which I guess fits in line with his weird freelancer Sunbow backstory, but not so much with his official filecard. There’s some excellent detail sculpted into his tiny belt buckle, and some sharp naval tatts on his forearms, as well as the insignia on his shoulders. Like the RAH figure, you get a plunging neckline, as his shirt is unbuttoned at the top, but here you actually get to see his hairy chest which is printed on. He has a belt rig with a scabbard for his larger gun and a hook for his boarding hook. There’s also a functional holster strapped to his right leg, which was just a sculpted bit on the RAH figure.

The head sculpt looks great, giving Shipwreck the look of a rough-and-tumble seadog. The beard and mustache sport some nice detail and the paint is pretty well, with only a few bits where the brown paint comes up short of the beard sculpt. He has a strong nose and somewhat sunken cheeks and one eyebrow is raised to give him a little character. This feels more like an update to the RAH character as opposed to the Sunbow one, and I’m all for that! With Super7 doing the Sunbow stuff, I really love when Hasbro does their own thing with these guys. The hat is removable and the hair goes with it, but you get a second hair piece if you want to display him sans hat. The secondary hair looks great, but I’ll likely always display him with the hat on.

Naturally, Shipwreck comes with his parrot Polly, which has no articulation, but is a fantastic little sculpt with some vibrant green and yellow coloring and some sharp paint on his tiny face and beak. They also gave him a peg leg, which is I think is hilarious, in a kind of morbid way. It gives the little figure so much character and poses so many questions as to how and why. It also serves the practical function of allowing him to be pegged into the hole on Shipwreck’s arm. You also get a coil of rope that can be worn over Shipwreck’s shoulder and it has a peg hole if you’d prefer to perch Polly up there. This is some really clever and fun design beats on Hasbro’s part and I love it!

The holster on his leg rig stores an automatic pistol, which is nothing terribly special, but a decent little sculpt nonetheless. The RAH figure didn’t come with a sidearm like this, but there was one sculpted onto the leg, so it’s nice for the Classified version to be able to make use of it.

The anchor is a stand in for the original figure’s boarding hook, which is an interesting update and certainly adds to the naval theme. The ring that allows it to hang off the belt can also be used to attach a string if you want to complete the look. Personally, I’d like to think he just uses this thing as a melee weapon and beats the shit out of Cobras with it while whistling a jaunty maritime tune.

The other weapon lifted from the RAH figure’s inventory is the percussion pistol, which I always thought was meant to be a sawed-off shotgun. I blame the 25th Anniversary figure for that. It is indeed an old-timey design with a double barrel and a vintage style hammer mechanism. Probably not the most reliable and efficient weapon to bring into battle, but it sure is distinctive and adds more to the figure’s naval theme and I dig it a lot. There’s also a sculpted lanyard loop coming off the handle grip.

The designers definitely had some fun with this figure, and for a character that I never warmed up to, I really love this one a lot. He walks that fine line between being a fairly credible military-style figure while infusing just enough distinctive character and not being too goofy. All the accessories gel so wonderfully and he’s tons of fun to pose and play around with. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this one is another direct hit for Classified and another reason why this is my favorite line to collect right now!

Nov 3 2023

Dungeons & Dragons: Ultimate Strongheart by NECA

There’s been no shortage of Dungeons & Dragons love in the toy aisles lately! While Hasbro has been delivering toys based on the 80’s cartoon and the recent movie, NECA has been showing lots of love to the old LJN toy line by giving us modern updates to those characters. And while Hasbro seems to have wrapped up their run at D&D toys, but it feels like NECA is just getting started. They came out swinging with two amazing figures, Warduke and Grimsword, and now they’re finally adding a hero to the lineup with Strongheart!

If you collect NECA then you already know what to expect from the packaging. It’s a window box with a front flap fastened by velcro. The character art on the front of the box is… OK, but really nothing special. Thankfully, you can open the flap, peep into the window and let the figure sell itself. As a kid, Strongheart was the only hero I had in this line for a while so he was kind of just generic adventurer exploring dungeons and getting constantly set upon by Warduke and the rubber monsters like the Grell. Seriously, the poor dude had to fight that Grell a lot.

Like his rivals, Warduke and Grimsword, this new Strongheart figure takes the original LJN design and juices it with a dose of realism and boy is the end result glorious. NECA grabbed enough of the LJN design beats from the armor to make this unmistakable as the noble Strongheart. The silver and blue armor is absolutely gorgeous! The wide gorget has the two circular points and the shield crest in the middle, his ab muscles are sculpted into the armor, and the winged knee guards are all straight off the vintage figure. NECA extrapolated the blue striping on the original figure’s forearms into belted bracers with each tiny buckle sculpted and painted. They also added some beautiful chainmail sculpt to the upper arms and legs, as well as an armored skirt. The only major change here is going from black boots on the original to blue here, and I do indeed love it!

The bright blue and shimmery cape is tailored from a thick and premium feeling cloth and is anchored to the gorget near the neck. Pull it to the side and you can see all the little details that NECA put into Strongheart’s back, even though you’ll rarely ever see it. This includes sculpted chains connecting the gorget to the back of his belt.

Strongheart is the first figure so far to actually have a face, and I think NECA did a wonderful job depicting the character with this more realistic portrait. The epic mustache is present, along with some rather dominant eyebrows and a prominent, manly chin. The face just exudes nobility, courage and heroism!

With the figure in hand, I was surprised and delighted to see that the visor is articulated and can be closed. The wings on the helmet have been streamlined and swept back, whereas they jutted out to the sides on the original figure. I think this manages to keep the overall design while giving him a much cooler looking profile. The white plume is still present, here spouting from the top and cascading back like a feathery ponytail

The original figure lacked a scabbard, but here we get one that not only holds the sword but also has an integral sheath for a dagger. The scabbard hangs from the belt on a loop and while I was skeptical as to whether this would work, it actually works very well. Indeed, it’s a much better design than pegging the scabbard into the figure and less delicate than the chain that hung one of Warduke’s sheathes from his belt.

The sword is pretty much an original design, since there wasn’t a lot to go on with the old LJN figure’s very generic weapon. It has a serviceable yet still attractive design that suits the figure quite well. It features a simple crossguard and pommel and a black ribbed grip. The sword has a broad blade that tapers quickly to a point near the tip. The blade is painted silver hand has some nice weathering.

The dagger design matches the sword, making them en suite. It’s pretty small and it doesn’t look like it would be much of a threat to Grimsword’s armor, but a well placed thrust would probably ruin Warduke’s day. Again, I really love the way the dagger’s sheath is incorporated into the scabbard.

Strongheart also comes with a shield, and I’m pretty sure this is an entirely newly designed piece as well. My old LJN Strongheart didn’t come with a shield, but I’m not sure if he was re-released later as part of the Battlematic figures with shields that fired missiles. Either way, it’s a very simple and knightly heater-type shield with silver paint around the edges intended to be reinforced steel with sculpted bolts. The reverse side of the shield has two straps, which work well with either the grippy or relaxed left hand. I think this was a great addition to the accessories as the shield really suits him well.

The final accessory here is the magic golden hammer, which is a wonderful nod to Strongheart’s appearance in the D&D cartoon, as that was his weapon of choice. Off hand, I don’t remember what it looked like and it didn’t have a lot of screen time as I recall, but this is a great looking piece and even includes a wrist strap hanging off the pommel.

I continue to love what NECA is doing with this line and to be honest it worries me that we’ve only seen one more reveal in the form of Elkhorn the Dwarf. Obviously, I want to see this line go deep and there are at least a half dozen more characters I’d like to see get this modernized treatment. I know that the reception for these figures has been extremely positive, so it’s just a question of whether that is translating to sales and I guess we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I still have Zarak to check out and I’ll give him the spotlight in the next week or so.

Nov 1 2023

G. I. JOE Classified: Low-Light by Hasbro

I’m going to be digging into G.I. JOE Classified hot and heavy over the next few weeks as I try desparately to get caught up with the pile of figures that have been coming in. I’m glad I cut way back on Marvel Legends and have pretty much dipped out on Star Wars Black Series entirely, because keeping up with Classified has become quite an endeavor and I’m sure I couldn’t have done it if I was still collecting Hasbro’s other 6-inch lines. Today I literally just grabbed a random figure off the stack and it happens to be Low-Light, so let’s do it!

Low-Light had one of the most bad ass backstories of all the RAH JOEs: Getting lost as a child in North Dakota while hunting with his father and surviving on his own for weeks with just a .22 rifle and a flashlight. Dayuuuum! Low-Light is also distinguished as being one of my first Classified figure reviews where I did not own the vintage original when I was a kid. That figure was released in 1986 and by that time I had moved on from toys… at least until I started collecting Playmates Star Trek figures over five years later. Suffice it to say, I’m excited to get this guy open and check him out!

Once again, Classified draws heavy on the original RAH design for the character, and all I can say is, keep it up guys because that’s what I’m here for! Low-Light has a set of gray-blue fatigues with reinforced patches, zippers, pouches and sculpted detail pretty much everywhere. The boots and gloves changed from black on the original figure to blue here, and it looks fine. You get some snappy silver paint on the buttons and clasps, green on the pineapple grenades hanging on his left front, and red paint on the quilted recoil pad on his right shoulder. His right leg has a sheath rig for his knife while his left leg has a pouch for his wind meter. The tactical backpack pegs into his back and has a peg on the side to hold one of his guns. What a great looking update to the original figure!

The portrait features solid face sculpt with his familiar blonde hair and knitted cap and his red goggles, which can sit up on his forehead or be worn down over his eyes. Since I don’t have a huge attachment to the original figure, I’m perfectly fine with the likeness they gave him. Honestly, I don’t really even remember Low-Light appearing in a whole lot of episodes of the Sunbow cartoon, except for when Cobra kidnapped his sister in Glamour Girls.

The visor fits over the eyes really well, with the top rim lining up with the lower edge of the cap almost perfectly. The paint on my figure’s visor is a bit sloppy with the red spilling over onto the lower frame a bit. It’s unfortunate, but not overly noticeable unless I’m punching in close with the camera. It doesn’t feel like positioning the goggles up and down is stretching the strap out too much, but I’ll probably wind up keeping them down over the eyes most of the time.

As for accessories, the wind meter is a really nice touch. Sure, it’s just a plain black piece of plastic and it looks like a cell phone with a fan attached to the top, but I think it’s really cool that Hasbro included this little piece of gear and gave him a spot for him to store it.

The survival knife is a nice little accessory as well. The grip is painted to match Low-Light’s fatigues and the blade is silver. He can hold it very well in either hand.

His regular shooter is, eh… well one of these weirdo modern European looking sub machine guns. The original figure came with an Uzi and I would have much preferred that, but I guess this is fine. I’m not up on these modern designs, but it’s a nice sculpt featuring a well-defined rail on the top, a foregrip, and a detachable magazine. God, how I love that Hasbro has made detachable mags a normal thing for this line and the gun sculpts have been absolutely fantastic, even if I do prefer the more traditional designs.

And then there’s this beauty! You get a fully functional case for Low-Light’s sniper rifle. The sculpt on this is beautiful from the nylon straps to the seams to the zipper running along the edge where it opens. It has a carry handle and a peg to attach to his back. There’s also a socket on it so you can peg the backpack on top of it, but I think that looks kind of silly, so it’s an “either, or” situation for me.

Open the case and you have compartments inside to hold the sniper rifle, scope, suppressor, and bipod. This is so damn cool and so incredibly well done! It’s also exactly the sort of thing that I hoped we would see with the increase in scale. Everything fits into the case perfectly and can be attached to the rifle once Low-Light has scouted his perch.

The rifle itself is a pretty big departure from the simple one that came with the original figure. Like his other weapon, it’s a little too modern for me to decipher what it’s based on, but the sculpt is fantastic and it too has a detachable magazine.

It’s pretty damn cool to finally get a Classified release of a figure that I didn’t have as a kid, and I suspect that’s going to be happening more frequently as Hasbro digs deeper into the line and releases updates to those post 1985 figures. I’ve already seen a few coming down the pipe that are going to be new to me and that’s pretty exciting. Low-Light is a fantastic addition to my JOE forces, which were getting pretty outnumbered by Cobra up to this point, but in the coming weeks I think the two sides will soon be more evenly matched!

Oct 25 2023

Marvel Legends (Khonshu Wave): Zombie Scarlet Witch and Zombie Iron Man by Hasbro

How weird is it to have a Marvel Legends review turn up in the middle of Halloween festivities, eh? Well, I love comics and I love Halloween so I jumped at the opportunity. And who knows? Maybe this won’t be the only Comic-Halloween crossover this week! Anyway, I had already stopped collecting complete waves of Legends by the time this second What If? inspired assortment hit the stores, and to be honest the only reason I picked up these two were because they hit deep discount on Amazon. The Konshu BAF actually looks pretty cool, but there’s no way I’m buying an Agent Woo or another Disney+ Loki figure to build him.

These figures come in the windowless packaging and honestly I don’t mind it much for Marvel Legends. The images on the boxes tend to be pretty close to what you get inside and by now most people probably know what to expect from this line. Besides, I throw these boxes out anyway. As the front of the package boldly exclaims, these are based on the animated What If? series from Disney+. This was the last of the D+ Marvel shows I tried to watch in good faith, but I couldn’t get through most of the episodes. Let’s start with Scarlet Witch…

Oh wow, this figure turned out great! She’s got a wonderfully creepy Deadite vibe going on and while the eye is inevitably drawn to the magnificent hair sculpt as the stand-out feature, everything about this figure is really well done. While it’s based on an animated design, I think it toes the line well enough to work with the regular MCU or comic figures. The outfit includes a shredded version of Wanda’s MCU look with the red overcoat over a red corset, black trousers, and black boots. There are holes sculpted into the jacket and the sculpted sleeve arms have similar damage and even display some exposed bones. You could possibly argue that the costume looks a bit too clean, but I can’t deny how beautiful the colors are here. The red is gorgeous and looks great alongside the matte and gloss black.

But as great as the body looks, the portrait remains the real showpiece here. The crazy hair is absolutely superb as it flies in every which way. The head sculpt shows a Zombie Wanda with a fierce visage, her downturned mouth showing teeth, blood smeared on her face and her eyes all glassy and void of pupils. This has got to be one of my favorite Legends head sculpts in a long while!

The articulation is better than we see with many Legends gals, as the elbows are double hinged and complimented with swivels in the biceps. The elbows are pinless but the knees are not. She comes with one pair of hands, which are of the spell-slinging variety and you get two hex power effect pieces to snake around her wrists. Because Zombies are bad enough, but hex-powered Zombies will really ruin your whole day. Let’s shamble on over to Zombie Iron Man…

This figure looks pretty good, but Zombie Wanda is a hard act to follow, and Undead Tony ain’t quite up to the challenge. The suit has a bit of Extremis flavor to me with just a bit more bulk and organic curves from the MCU models. I like it a lot and the red finish has a beautiful new car shine to it with some splotches of filth sprayed very sparingly here and there. There’s a little sculpted damage to the suit, including a missing panel on the right side of his abs, showing some exposed ribs, and a piece taken out of the left forearm. A bit of gold and silver painted accents add to the figure’s sharp deco.

The head sculpt here is pretty good, but again not nearly as good as Wanda’s. This one looks a lot more animated, which is fine considering the source, but some of the details, like the sprayed on mustache, is wanting. Still, the rotted holes in his cheeks and the open mouth cavity are pretty damn cool. He also has a rotted out nose and two yellow pupil-less eyes. The hair sculpt is a bit chunky, but not bad at all.

Zombie Stark comes with two pairs of hands and two repulsor blast effect parts. The hands include one pair of fists and a pair of open repulsor hands, which have no articulation in the wrist. The effect parts are the same pieces we’ve seen before. Here they are cast in translucent blue and they plug into the holes in the open hands.

I picked up these figures at $13 each and I’m really happy I did, especially since I already had Zombie Cap from the previous What If? wave and these three look great together. Wanda is the stand out figure in the trio for me, but Iron Man and Cap are no slouch either. It’ll be interesting to see if Hasbro dips into this well again, and to be honest now that I have three of them, chances are I might not wait for clearance if any other Marvel Zombies turn up. Now, if only I had some DC Zombies to look at on Friday… hmm…

Oct 20 2023

Transformers X G. I. JOE: Megatron HISS Tank by Hasbro

I’ve been taking stock of some of the toys that have been sitting around for a while and waiting their turn in the spotlight here, so you may see some older stuff turning up now and then. One of those woefully delayed reviews is this crossover between Transformers and G. I. JOE that I picked up almost exactly a year ago. I must have had a lot going on because I shelved it and kind of forgot about it. So, let’s take a look at one of those 80’s kids fantasies where Transformers and G. I. JOE meet! Where knowing is more than meets the eye but only half the battle!

The box is interesting as it’s basically a two-part slipcase that slides off each side to reveal a plain brown box with the Hasbro logo on it. The slipcase is gorgeous with the vintage style package design from each franchise represented and some amazing artwork for the vehicle and characters. The Megatron robot mode really downplays the HISS kibble we’re going to see on the actual toy, but even in that regard it’s still very much in the spirit of the vintage TF package art. There’s a fake window showing that the figure includes a vintage-style 3 3/4-inch Baroness, who actually comes carded inside the box. I’ll be honest, as a kid I was never really jonesing for this kind of mash-up. The Cobra Commander cameo in the the Transformers episode Only Human was a cool enough tease for me. Nonetheless, how could I resist something like this?

Here’s Baroness. Yes, she’s still carded and I’m going to keep her that way. All of my 3 3/4-inch JOEs are from the 25th Anniversary line or later, so she really wouldn’t fit in anywhere. I love the card art on this, but the card itself is pretty flimsy and prone to warping. The figure overall looks good, except for where they painted the skin around here eyes inside the glasses so it doesn’t match the rest of her skin color. It may not be all that noticeable in the picture, but it’s really obvious with the figure in hand. She comes with a backpack and rifle. It would have been really cool to give her a scaled down Megatron gun to make her really special to this set, but at least the back of the card has some art specific to this crossover.

And here’s Megatron in his HISS mode, and he looks fantastic. There are some telltale signs that this tank is More Than Meets The Eye if you know where to look, but for a casual observer, this really does look like a regular 3 3/4-inch scale HISS tank and that’s awesome. There’s a seam running down the center of the nose that doesn’t close up all the way, you can see the off-white panels under the cockpit, which are Megatron’s arms, and the most obvious is Megatron’s chest piece fully exposed under the rear platform. None of these really bother me at all, in fact I think they all add to the charm of the toy.

The bulk of the toy is cast in matte black plastic and there are printed red Cobra emblems, as well as some identification numbers. The treads are sculpted just like the regular HISS toys, but there are wheels under it to roll it into battle. Most of the sculpted detail goes into the tread system, but there are still some bolt holes and panel lines, which help draw the eye from the actual transformation seams. The turret rotates as it should and the cannon barrels can be raised and lowered, and they actually move independently from one another.

Here are some comparisons of Megatron HISS with the 25th Anniversary release, and damn they look pretty close. When viewed from the side, and ignoring the color/style changes to the markings, it’s virtually impossible to tell which is the transforming toy.

If you don’t like having extra pieces, you can plug Megatron’s fusion cannon into the turret to give it some extra firepower. On the one hand it kind of looks silly, but then again I kind of like the personalized Megatron touch it gives to the toy.

And here’s the tank with some of Super7’s ReAction figures manning it. These make for a good fit, although this vehicle is really designed for the vintage-style O-Ring figures and the foot pegs on the tailgate are not compatible with the Super7 peg holes. Despite splitting apart down the middle for transformation, the interior of the cockpit is still fully realized with a ton of sculpted detail. The ReAction figures fit fine, but the O-Ring figures would fit even better. Let’s get Megatron transformed and check him out.

Transforming the toy into robot mode is pretty easy, but I found that getting it locked back down into HISS mode can be a pain, even when I know what I’m supposed to be doing. In robot mode, it’s clear that Hasbro’s focus here was the HISS mode, because the robot mode has a lot of kibble. It’s like Megatron is cosplaying as a HISS tank. I think the toy manages the HISS parts pretty well when viewed from the front, but there’s a lot of stuff going on the back… like, oh I don’t know… the fact that he’s basically wearing half a HISS tank as a backpack. I was not fond of this at all when I first saw the toy, but it’s grown on me a little bit. It’s kind of got a powerful battlemech vibe going on, and I’m not hating it. Either way, there’s enough G1 Megatron beats to the robot mode to make it work.

I really dig how the design added the rocket packs to the tread pieces that land on his hips. Being able to launch off six rockets from your hips ain’t a bad thing. The fusion cannon pegs in on the back of the hand, but at least he’s not actually holding it. He can definitely get into a good firing pose with it.

During transformation the back plate of the HISS is removed. You can incorporate this as a shield, but it looks like exactly what it is… Megatron holding the backplate of the HISS. I wish they had just designed this piece to peg into the back somewhere. Then again, maybe he’s already got enough going on back there. As it is, I’ll just set this piece aside when displaying him in robot mode.

The head sculpt is pure money. I’d say this is one of the best G1 Sunbow inspired Megatron heads Hasbro has ever given us. The HISS turret lands directly behind the head and this serves as a firing position for a figure while Megsy is in robot mode. It kind of justifies the extra bulk on his back, or at least gives it a purpose. It also gives the included Baroness figure something to do when Megatron is in robot mode. On the other hand, it’s hard for me to believe Megatron would be fine with human vermin riding on his back.

If you’re looking for an Optimus Prime to square up against this figure, the Power of the Primes Powermaster Prime isn’t too bad. He comes up a little short, but I think they look good facing off against each other.

Overall, I like this toy a lot, but I fall just short of really loving it. As a kid, it was kind of a dream of mine to have a Transformers figure that could hold action figures in its alt mode, and this definitely scratches that itch. The HISS mode is so incredibly well done and it’s fun to load it up with figures and display it alongside regular HISS tanks. The robot mode isn’t all that bad, but the HISS kibble is definitely rather excessive. At least Hasbro leaned into it by giving him the turret on back so he can interact with figures even in robot mode. This thing was released at $90, which I still think is pretty damn excessive, but I got it on sale for around $60 and it can be had these days for even less than that price. Hasbro followed this up with a Bumblebee AWE Striker, which was a pass for me, because it should have been Hound. A third release has been up for pre-order, mashing Soundwave and the Dreadnoks Thunder Machine, and I couldn’t resist that one.

Oct 18 2023

G. I. JOE Classified Firefly (2.0) by Hasbro

The Classified figures are really piling up here, folks, and while I’d like to give every figure a go in the proper order they were received, I inevitably bump some of the new releases to the head of the line because they happen to be on my desk and ready to go. That’s the case with today’s review of Cobra’s demolitions expert… Firefly! Also, since I never did get around to checking out the first Classified Firefly figure, we’ll do a little comparison at the end.

I’m not sure why Hasbro chose this particular figure as a do-over, especially before Scarlett and Duke. I don’t remember any great outrage over the first one, although I think that figure left some people underwhelmed. Either way, Firefly was a prominent figure for me when I was a kid, and he was always crawling under JOE vehicles and planting tiny C4 charges that I made out of modeling clay. One time he blew up the APC full of JOEs. It was a horrific massacre with body parts and O-Rings flying everywhere. Only Gung-Ho survived to avenge his friends in a Rambo style one-man killing spree. He worked his way up the chain and eventually took out Cobra Commander himself. But, don’t worry… everyone was miraculously alive again and ready for action when I was playing the next day.

And unlike the first Firefly, this time Classified gives us a pretty close update to the original vintage figure, complete with gray camo fatigues, which in this case I think are colored a bit lighter than the figure I remember, but still looking great. The fatigues have all sorts of sculpted pockets and stitch lines, as well as knee pads, and there’s a red Cobra emblem printed on his left bicep. The chest rig, which was sculpted as part of the RAH figure is now a separate sculpt, as is the belt, holster, left thigh rig, and both the forearm bracers. This makes all of these pieces a lot more prominent on this version, and gives him a bulkier and more kitted-out feel. He really does look like a one-man demolition squad. The chest rig has some sculpted pouches, pineapple grenades, some canister grenades, and even some green paint on the explosive bricks down the lower left side of the chest rig.

The head sculpt features the balaclava style mask that I always associate with the character. It’s in camo gray to match his fatigues and you get some rather intense eyes peering out. The neck is encircled with a ribbed turtleneck that can be seen extending down into the opening of his fatigues.

Firefly comes with a pair of night vision goggles, which can be worn up on his forehead or down over his eyes. These are cast in soft plastic and fit the head really well in either position. These have a pretty cool sci-fi design to them with a honeycomb pattern over the yellow lens and red globe over the opposite eye.

The backpack is probably the most reimagined part of this figure, although it still conforms to the RAH pack in a general sense. It’s an open frame design with a carry bar and two sculpted pouches at the top. The opening tool box from the vintage figure has been replaced with some kind of electronic device with a digital display resembling a seismic monitor. There are some more sculpted gadgets in here, including a pretty big grenade. I can’t deny that it would have been cool to see the toolbox make a return, but I still like what Hasbro did with this pack design a lot. There’s a peg on the side to store his rifle and pegs on the angled lower panels to store two mines.

The mines are simple enough, but really cool accessories. They have painted red lights on the top and some decent sculpted detail. I love that they can be stored on the backpack for easy access.

As for more traditional weapons, Firefly is armed with an automatic pistol and a submachine gun. The pistol stores in the holster on his hip and can share the silencer with the submachine gun. Meanwhile, the larger weapon is patterned after the one included with the RAH figure and has a removable magazine, which I always really appreciate. On the downside, the box shows some green paint on the submachine gun’s foregrip, which didn’t make it into the final production. I thought it was a nice nod to the color of the RAH figure’s weapon and a great example of why if you’re going to do windowless boxes, you really should make sure the picture is accurate. Although, in fairness it is depicted as unpainted on the upper right hand corner of the box.

He also has a combat knife, which is stored in a sheath on his right forearm. Once again, this accessory is depicted on the box having some green paint that got nixed for production, so it was left all black.

And finally, Firefly’s arsenal is rounded out by his remote control explosive delivery system, aka RC Car. This fat-tired four-wheel delivery system is strapped with a brick of explosives and ready to be inserted under the nearest GI JOE convoy. It rolls along and can be stored by plugging it into the bottom of the backpack! The detonator is a nifty little device with a pistol grip and detonation trigger and a circular screen with the number 3, presumably showing a countdown. This sort of replaces the walkie-talkie that came with the RAH figure, and I’m cool with that.

As promised, here’s a quick look at both Classified Firefly figures together. I didn’t mind the first one so much, but boy does it come up short compared to this second release. And I mean that both literally and figuratively. Even with his bulky torso armor, he’s tiny compared to Firefly 2.0. I still dig the overall look of the first release, and the drone was a nice touch, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the new one will be my Classified Firefly. Old Firefly will either get relegated to a Tote or perhaps just be a generic Cobra saboteur. I think this comparison is a great example of how far Classified has come, and how much it’s been embracing the franchise roots more than ever.

And there you have it, another slam dunk for the Classified team. Firefly is a fantastic figure and a worthy addition to my Cobra forces for when something needs to go boom. I tend to have a special affinity for the Classified figures that have a more realistic military vibe and Firefly certainly fits that bill. I can’t wait to seat him in one of the Classified Trouble Bubbles I have waiting for him. Which reminds me, I’ve really got to spotlight at those Trouble Bubbles here in the next week or so.

Oct 6 2023

Indiana Jones Adventure Series (The Last Crusade): Indy, Henry Jones Sr., and Grail Knight by Hasbro

I don’t think anyone was really surprised that Indiana Jones didn’t get a spot at the PulseCon a couple weeks back. With the Dial of Destiny flopping hard Hasbro seems content to push out the figures already revealed and sweep the rest under the rug. I really have to wonder what liability Disney has when they sell a license to a franchise and then run that franchise into the ground. The Ollies and the Ross stores around here are like a graveyard of Hasbro-Disney product all stacked high and on deep discount. Maybe this stuff will wind up there, but I was willing to support the line with pre-orders. And I for one am glad we got what we got, as this is probably the last time we’ll see Indiana Jones toys in my lifetime.

The last time I checked out the the 6-inch Adventure Series, we looked at three figures from The Last Crusade, and we’re doing it again today. The figures come in the same style of fully enclosed boxes and I like these quite a bit. The character art on the side panels looks great, especially when they’re all lined up on the shelf, and there are little scenes from the film down below. This is another Build-An-Artifact Wave, allowing you to build the table that held the various grails. I won’t be building it, because it requires you to buy two figures from Dial of Destiny and even when they do hit clearance, it’ll be too much to pay for figures I don’t want just to build the table. Thankfully, the three figures I’m looking at today come with some grails, so I’m happy to have those. Elsa Schneider is in this wave too, but she appears to be shipping later. Let’s start with Indy…

I won’t spend a whole lot of time with Indy, as he’s mostly recycled from the Raiders of the Lost Ark figure we got in the first wave, right down to his accessories. But hey, I liked this figure body the first time and I like it now too. The main difference is the re-sculpted collar and the necktie. As near as I can tell any other slight differences in the body and clothing are just variances in the molding process. I will say that the tab on the whip loop actually works this time, so I’m not sure if that’s something they changed or I just got lucky, but it’s a nice surprise. If it weren’t for the necktie, I’d happily take this figure as my all-purpose Indy figure.

The portrait is new and it’s rather perplexing. It has less paint, less sculpted detail, and yet somehow manages to look better to me than Raiders Indy. Now, I wasn’t completely down on the first portrait, but I wasn’t in love with it either. This one is a much better likeness to me, but it lacks some of the detail, like Ford’s ubiquitous chin scar. The hat is also actually removable this time, but I’m not sure why because if you take it off you just get a baldy head with a tab coming out of it. All in all, this is a big improvement if you weren’t keen on the first head.

You get the same three accessories that came with the Raiders release, which includes his revolver, a coiled whip and an uncoiled whip. They’re all identical and overall pretty good. The uncoiled whip doesn’t seem long enough at all, but that was a problem with the first release too. Pity they didn’t fix that.

The one new accessory here is the MP-40. It’s not up to GI JOE Classified weapons quality, but it’s a decent sculpt and looks great in his hands. So, overall I’m really happy with this figure and it’s a solid representation of Indy in the third film. It was definitely worth it to me to double-dip on the character. Moving on to the the senior Jones…

I didn’t have a lot of expectations for this Henry Sr, but boy there’s a lot to like here. The suited body is has some nice detail, but they could have done a better job matching up the sculpted sleeves with the vest part of the jacket. It can be finessed to look better, but it’s also going to have gaps which just seem extra obvious on this figure. For some reason I really love how prominently the bowtie pops. The vest also looks really good with the sculpted cinching around the buttons. I realize that a suited figure isn’t the most exciting thing around, but it feels like Hasbro poured some extra love into this body and I can appreciate that.

The portrait is excellent and I can’t believe that Hasbro pulled off removable glasses that look this good in this scale. Not only do they hook behind the ears and stay put, with the hat helping to keep them secured. On top of that I really dig this likeness a lot. I think it’s a tad stronger with the hat and glasses off, but it works for me either way. I think this is probably my first Sean Connery figure, so it’s nice to see they did him justice. Just a wonderful job all around!

Henry Sr. comes with three accessories: His suitcase, his umbrella, and his diary all of which are very well done. The only thing I’m going to gripe about here is that i wish they made it so you could pass the umbrella through the straps of the suitcase like he did in the movie. Big deal? Nah. I’m just looking for things to nitpick. Once again, the sculpts on all of these make it look like Hasbro put some love into them and the weathering on the briefcase is especially nice. Let’s wrap things up with The Grail Knight…

I was particularly excited for this figure, not just for the character from the film, but because I love collecting figures of knights in general. So, I would have bought this guy even if I wasn’t collecting this line and as it turns out he may be my favorite figure in the Adventure Series so far. Hasbro did a really nice job sculpting his quilted tunic, making it look sufficiently puffy to hide the chain mail hauberk that no doubt lies underneath. Even the symbol of The Knights of the Cruciform Sword on his chest is sculpted as well as painted. The exposed chainmail on the hands and lower legs looks amazing and has a nice silver finish. The belt is sculpted as part of the lower half of the tunic and has a peg hole to attach the sword scabbard to.

The cape both hangs off the neck and pegs into the back and it fits the figure well, hugging the shoulders tightly. Of course, that means that it also curtails the range of motion in those shoulders, or at least the right one in particular. Fortunately, if you want to go with some action poses, you can just take the cape off. The plastic has a cool texture that makes it look very cottony and you get another sculpted Cruciform Sword symbol on the left shoulder of the cape and also painted red.

The likeness to actor Robert Eddison is really spot on. This may be the strongest head sculpt Hasbro has produced in this line. The chainmail hood is sculpted as part of the head and frames his face perfectly, and they nailed the rather distinctive contours of his cheek bones. Even the printing and sculpt of the beard is terrific.

The sword fits easily into the scabbard, which pegs into the figure securely. The hilt is silver and looks to be strongly influenced by one of the hilt patterns attributed to Richard the Lionheart. It’s a nicely detailed sculpt, I just wish the blade was painted as well instead of left as gray plastic. Unfortunately, the hilt is rather loose in his gripping hand and that’s weird since it’s the only accessory he comes with that’s meant specifically for him to hold, but you can still make it work.

As I mentioned earlier, I won’t be building the table for this wave because I don’t want to pick up the Dial of Destiny figures, but the various Grails are a nice bonus.

This is a great assortment of figures and it really feels like The Last Crusade is getting most of the love in this series. I’m glad I double-dipped on Indy, because he has some improvements over the Raiders version. As for Henry Sr and The Grail Knight, well they’re both excellent figures in their own right with some superb head sculpts. It’s a shame that Dr. Schneider will be arriving late for the party, but I’ll be sure to check her out here when she arrives. In the meantime, I also have a Raiders of the Lost Ark based two-pack waiting to be opened, and I’ll check that out when I return to this line in a week or so.

Sep 25 2023

G. I. JOE Classified: Scrap Iron by Hasbro

Hasbro had it’s annual PulseCon last Friday and G.I. JOE Classified really ran away with the whole show. There were tons of new reveals, some confirmed rumors, and just lots of beautiful figures to drool over and pre-order. And it also made me realize how behind I am on what’s already here, so I’m going to be pushing the Classified reviews pretty hard over the next month or so. Today I’m digging into what was one of my all-time favorite Cobra figures back in the day. Let’s check out the MOBAT’s worst enemy… Scrap Iron!

Why did I love this guy so much? Probably because he looked so cool and he came with such an amazing bonus weapon. I also had him drive around the Cobra STINGER most of the time because it was his vehicle of choice in the cartoon. Whenever I played with my JOEs, this guy was front and center, usually as Destro’s right hand man. As a Deluxe figure, Scrap Iron comes in a big box to house his mobile Anti-Tank Drone with a swipe on the corner showing all the goodies inside. While I haven’t been a big fan of the no-plastic packaging, I think this is a great presentation. No goofy highly stylized art, just a classic head shot and some digital renders of the figure in action. It’s also worth noting that Hasbro has been killing it with this line so well that I have no problem buying the figures without seeing them through a window.

Classified Scrap Iron stays pretty close to his original vintage roots with dark blue fatigues and a red vest with a pair of sculpted black grenades and a black pouch. His red belt features two thigh straps, with the right one equipped with a holster. He has black knee guards and the only big design difference here is the original red boots have been changed to black with red stripes, and I think that was a good call! The sculpted detail here is really nice with lots of quilted padding on his vest, sculpted elastic around his wrist cuffs, and texturing added to his fatigues. His open collar, exposing the red shirt underneath also calls back tot he original figure. He also has a crisp red Cobra emblem on his shoulder. A always loved how Scrap Iron’s uniform made him look more like a specialized Cobra Trooper than a lot of the other wacky Cobra characters. Classified Scrap Iron is everything I could have asked for in a modern update.

The head sculpt holds some grizzly surprises, but first we’ve got to talk about how awesome his helmet came out. The matte black helmet has a fixed black visor and an angular sculpted Cobra emblem on the forehead just like the original. In this case, we got a little bit of red paint on the emblem, which makes it stand out nicely. What’s more the helmet fits the figure beautifully.

Take it off and I’ve got to just take a moment and bask in all the love and imagination that went into this head sculpt. I remember Scrap Iron’s filecard stated that he conducted field tests for a lot of Destro’s new armaments and I’m guessing that some of them didn’t go so well because this guy is severely burned and disfigured. I can’t say enough about how much I love how the designers extrapolated all this into a portrait for a character that previously always had a permanent helmet. The burns across the left side of his head are grizzly, his left eye is just a milky orb, and he’s got scarring all across the right side of his face and head. It’s kind of tragic when you remember that Scrap Iron was a perfectionist with his filecard stating that any form of imperfection repelled him. That must make it tough for him to look in the mirror. This is peak Classified, and that’s saying a lot when you’re talking about a line this good.

Scrap Iron only has one personal weapon included and that’s his automatic pistol, and when you’re toting around your own tank-busting rocket drone, I guess a pistol is plenty. It’s a cool looking piece with a very pronounced rail on the top and a peg hole in the barrel so it can be used with any of those effect parts that came with past figures. He has two sets of trigger finger hands, so he can wield the pistol left or fight and it stores in the holster nicely.

He also comes with a remote control unit for his Anti-Tank Drone, which replaces the corded firing plunger that came with the original figure. This basically looks like a Nintendo Switch with two antenna and a printed red screen. The only downside here is that there’s nowhere to store it on his person. He can however handle it pretty well in either or both of those trigger finger hands.

And that brings us to the Drone, and it is all sorts of awesome. The original figure came with a static rocket launcher on a tripod, so this treaded mobile launcher is a pretty cool update. This little dealer of destruction has a glossy black finish with some nice angled edges and soft gray treads. There’s a sensor array on the top and the launcher itself is attached to the chassis by a ball joint giving it some nice aiming abilities. There are some red paint hits on the front grills and the rear bumper, as well as in the camera compartment that sits between the rocket tubes. You also get some markings stamped in white on the sides. Hasbro did a beautiful job modernizing the original accessory and I think giving it mobility was a great idea.

The red rockets are perfect callbacks to the originals and are of course removable These have LAZER-GUIDED printed in white lettering on the sides and X04 stamped in black near the fins.

There are effect parts included so you can display them launching from the tubes and these look great, with one being a little longer than the other. These slide into the launch tubes and peg into the back of the missiles. They’re cast in orange semi-translucent plastic with some white smoke smoke painted at the bases.

The set also includes four additional blast effect pieces and these are pretty damn big. Like the launcher effect parts, these are cast in semi-translucent red and orange plastic with white smoke painted in at the bases. These look amazing and they work well as impacts of Scrap Irons’ rockets or as the result of a pesky Skyhawk trying to take out the drone with a couple of its SPATS rockets. Just plain awesome!

I confess to getting a little bit nervous when Classified updates one of my favorite figures, but I don’t know why because they’re nailing it just about every time, and Scrap Iron here is no exception. I love every last thing about this figure and his awesome drone too. The outfit hits all the beats of the original figure and the design team went above and beyond giving my man some real personality in that portrait. It makes my imagination go into overdrive and gives him so much more character. This set retails for $45 and I can’t recommend it enough. And yeah… if it happens to go on sale, I may grab another to add one more drone to my collection.

Sep 15 2023

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Golden Archive) Simon & Doric by Hasbro

A few days ago I watched D&D Honor Among Thieves again and I guess I was half a bottle into the Jameson and wound up picking up some of the figures off Amazon on clearance. I wasn’t going to review any of these, but then I came up short on time for today’s review and these were handy, so here we go. If that’s not a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is! Random selection pulled Simon first and I decided to toss in Doric as well. Did they ever make it as a couple? Well, I doubt there will be a sequel so decide for yourself!

I have to say that I really enjoyed this movie… enough to see it twice in the theater and a couple of times now at home. Was it a great Dungeons & Dragons film? Eh, maybe not, but it sure as shit was a better D&D movie than the last one. Either way, it was really fun and I liked the characters. I also really like the design on these packages. The character art is very nice, but here’s a great example of not knowing what you’re getting inside. Also, these boxes are huge compared to the contents and they feel like they’re empty. If I was buying these in a store, I’d have serious doubts as to whether there was a figure in there at all! Let’s start with Simon.

Simon (the Sorcerer) Amur has a really solid D&D outfit and Hasbro did a great job sculpting it here. Even if I wasn’t familiar with the character, the figure just has a classic fantasy-medieval look about him. The blue tunic is textured, the tan sleeves billow out at the wrists, he’s got sculpted leather wrappings on his hands, and his shoes… well, he kind of looks like he’s wearing modern dress shoes, but it’s fine. The plastic cape has some nice texturing and there’s some muddied paint down at the edge.

Other wonderful details include the colorful satchel he wears over his shoulder and the spell reagent dispenser, which oddly enough reminded me of a birth control wheel. He also has a pouch or coin purse on the belt next to it. There’s just tons little bits and bobs here that make this figure feel like a labor of love.

The head sculpt is a pretty decent likeness, but I’m not really familiar with the actor. The only other thing he’s been in that I heard of was one of the endless Jurassic Park sequels, and I stopped bothering with those a while ago. The features use the modern printing method for the eyes and lips, and the hair sculpt is solid.

Simon comes with two accessories: The Hither-Thither Staff and the Helm of Disjunction. The staff is very well done with some sculpted detail in the shaft and some paint hits. The pale blue crystal at the top looks great. I’m glad we got this as an accessory because it was a really fun gimmick in the film.

The helmet also has some great detailing and some paint, but it’s cast in that shitty thin gold plastic that Hasbro sometimes dips into. But at least he can wear it.

The articulation here is mostly what you might expect with Hasbro’s six-inch lines. In fact, the only disappointing thing is the rotating hinges in the elbows which have a really bad range of motion. Poor Simon can’t even pull off a 90-degree bend and that’s just unacceptable. He comes with just the one pair of hands, with the right one sculpted to hold the staff and the left hand in a spell-slinging gesture. OK, let’s move on to Doric.

Doric the Druid was a fun character! Once again, I didn’t know the actress from anything else, but she was certainly good in the movie. This costume didn’t give Hasbro as much to work with as Simon’s but I think they still turned in a solid effort. The tunic has a layered look to it with some soft texturing. There are stitching lines sculpted into her shoulder pads, and she has a removable feathered shroud that goes over her right shoulder, which I think Hasbro counts as her accessory. Yeah, that’s pretty cheap! Her tail is pretty cool and it plugs into her ass with a ball joint so you get a little basic poseability out of it.

Sadly, Hasbro didn’t do as well with this portrait as they did with Simon’s. It stumbles a little bit in the sculpt and printing both. The hair looks nice and her little horns are cool. You can’t really see her pointed ears under the hair, which is a shame. I don’t think this turned out terribly, but it ain’t great either. I thought the actress was pretty cute and it doesn’t come across here very well.

Doric does have her little pop-up slingshot on her left arm bracer, which is pretty well done considering the scale. I was actually surprised they even attempted it, but it still doesn’t count as an accessory to me. Maybe Hasbro could have included some sculpted animal forms? I think that was a big miss. The lack of extras here just feels really wanting, especially with how big the boxes are.

Doric’s articulation is identical to Simon and that means she can’t pull off 90-degrees in those elbows either. I think that’s an even bigger tragedy here because she seemed like a pretty agile character. All in all Doric is OK, but I think Simon turned out better.

Yeah, today’s review was kind of quick and dirty, but at least I was able to turn something in. I don’t think these figures are at all bad, but they sure aren’t worth $25 a pop. Thankfully I got them for $12 each which is why I’m giving them a pass. They look good with The Beholder and I’m anxious to put them up against the Displacer Beast, which I will get to reviewing eventually. Indeed, I hope to get through all the figures here eventually, but they aren’t going to be high priority, so maybe I’ll save them for when I need some quick content or just do them all in one big speed-review.

Sep 4 2023

G. I. JOE Classified: Cobra Valkyries by Hasbro

Even an evil organization like Cobra isn’t beyond the reach of having to take on a Diversity Compliance Specialist and as a result we get The Valkyries! That’s right, these Cobra reinforcements arrived over the weekend and I was very excited to take a look at them, so they got bumped to the head of the line. This is a two-pack of Cobra femme fatale troopers with lots of gear and effect parts. In the past, I went pretty nuts buying Cobra Troopers and Officers in this line, but I was able to limit myself to two of these sets for now and will pepper them throughout my Cobra forces. Let’s cue up some Wagner and take a look!

The Valks come in a fully enclosed box with some great renders on the front and a shot of all the accessories included. Inside, you get the figures on a cardboard tray as well as a cardboard footlocker containing paper baggies with all those pieces. There are a lot of tiny pieces in there, so be sure to check those bags thoroughly before pitching them!

Here are the ladies out of the box and geared up. These feature the same body sculpt with most of the blue fatigues being smooth with some rumples, and some sculpted panels on their hips. There’s textured reinforcement on the biceps and up around the shoulders and upper chest, along with a sculpted Cobra emblem. Each figure has high boots, as well as sculpted armor plates for their knees and forearms. One Valk has these pieces painted all black, while the other has some tan paint for the straps on her boots and forearms. They each also have a good bit of separately sculpted pieces, which include the right hip holster, the belt with left cross-draw holster, left bicep strap, and shoulder rigs with a a right side sheath. Thanks to pegs on the backpacks, each Valkyrie can store all their gear, which is always a big plus in my book.

The backpacks have some excellent sculpted detail, but I wish they stayed on a bit better. Also, I’ll concede that I was not a big fan of the tan coloring on the one figure when these were introduced, and I’m still not all that crazy about it. I kind of appreciate Hasbro wanting to offer a little color variety between the two figures, but maybe grey would have been a better way to go. Honestly, I would have been happier if they were both the same black. No, it’s not a dealbreaker for me, but I just like the look of the entirely black and blue uniform better. Apart from that, I think these figures look great and I’ll throw in some pictures at the end to show how well they mix with the other Classified Cobra Troopers.

The set includes a total of three heads and three removable helmets. The two regular heads have face masks and tight fitting hoods similar to the Classified Cobra Troopers. The only other difference here is the sculpt around the exposed eyes. These are not only unique sculpts but one has dark skin and one has light skin.

You also get a gasmask style head with a red visor, which looks pretty damn rad. I do wish we got some completely unmasked heads like Hasbro is doing with their female SHIELD pack in Marvel Legends. You can swap heads with those Marvel Legends figures, but these ball joints are smaller so a bit of putty will be needed to make the replacement noggins a tight fit.

I mentioned three helmets, and the third has a silver badge on the front. V for Valkyrie? I guess this one one works for if you want to make one of the ladies an officer. The three helmets stay on the figures pretty well, but I found that they could get lopsided pretty often and I’m sure that came across in a few of my pictures here.

For weapons, each figure comes with the same arsenal with one set cast in black and the other in tan plastic. Again, still not a big fan of the tan, but I’ll live with it. In total you get two knives, four pistols, two sub-machine guns, and two machine guns. We’ll start small and work our way up. First up is the cutlery and these are pretty standard fighting knives with the blades painted silver and the hilts either black or tan. They’re fine, but not as impressive as some of the other blades we’ve seen recently. The right hand seems to hold them better than the left, even though both hands are designed for the guns.

The automatic pistols are a matched pair for each figure and these are pretty nice. They’re not too chunky and not too small. You get some nice detail in the sculpt and they fit well in either the hands or the holsters. In theory I really like the inclusion of the cross-draw holster, but in practice t doesn’t make much sense since the right hand would obviously just draw the weapon from the right holster.

I like the machine guns a lot. You get a pretty simple grease-gun style sub-machine gun with a removable stick magazine. This one has a flared muzzle and a scope. The scope seems like an odd choice for this kind of weapon, but it’s still a great design that reminds me a bit of the weapon design the Cobra troops often carried in the Sunbow cartoon. The alternative is an automatic rifle with an under the barrel grenade launcher. This is another excellent sculpt and you get a removable magazine as well. And yes, I I still think the scope should have been sculpted on this one.

Finally, the set includes a whole bunch of effect parts for the weapons. I think we’ve seen all of these before, and they tend to vary in how they look. Not that I’m complaining. I’ll take as many of these as I can get. All of the weapons have holes in their barrels and these parts just peg in. Some are designed to peg together for different combinations, and I particularly love the smoking barrel pieces. My only complaint here is that I couldn’t really make one work with the grenade launcher.

After the great Cobra Eel debackle, it’s nice to see that Hasbro is still capable of making good decisions with troop builders. Selling these in two-packs and making them easy to get is a great idea and it’s going to be tough to stick to just two. Not that I have much of a choice, as these did sell out. Hopefully Hasbro will do a restock, especially if they like money. Sure, Hasbro Pulse isn’t my first choice for online shopping, and I tend to stick to them only for exclusives like this, but I’ll admit that they’ve been pretty good about getting figures out and delivered in a timely manner. The price was $55, and that feels about right considering how many extras are included.