Feb 17 2017

Star Wars Black: Obi-Wan Kenobi (A New Hope) by Hasbro

Sorry, folks. No DC Friday this week. I’ve still got a whole case of 6-inch Star Wars Black figures to go through and I need to start chipping away at them before more arrive. So today I’m opening a figure that I am pretty excited about finally getting. It’s Obi-Wan Kenobi from Episode IV: A New Hope!

Obi-Wan got something of a pre-release back at last year’s SDCC with some snazzy packaging and exclusive extra bits. The regular retail packaging offers no surprises, it’s just the same old stuff. It’s collector friendly and the side panel features the figure’s name and number. I have only saved the boxes for a handful of these figures and alas, Obi-Wan’s box is destined for the bin. You’ll note that the figure comes packaged with his cloak on, but I’m going to start with it off.

Sculpted robes often pose problems in terms of a figure’s overlook and articulation, but here I think Hasbro did a reasonably nice job on both counts. There’s a good amount of detail in the outfit itself including lots of folds and wrinkles. There’s also a very subtle texturing to drive home the appearance of cloth. The belt sculpted belt features the pouch on his right hip and a hook to hang his lightsaber hilt. Unfortunately, the blade doesn’t seem to want to come out of my lightsaber hilt, so that hook isn’t doing me a lot of good.

Loose sleeves like these are particularly tricky for sculptors because they should look considerably different whether the character has his arms at his sides or raised in an action pose. Here, Hasbro went for a compromise by putting the wrists right in the middle. They look fine with the arms down, but rather unnatural with the arms up. I guess I’m OK with this, as I doubt I’ll be displaying him in an action pose. I do really like how the wrists are set fairly deep into the sleeve, as it makes the plastic garment more convincing.

I think the portrait here is passable in general and maybe better than average for this line. It really varies wildly based on the angle, distance and lighting. And yes, that’s a left-handed compliment. I would have liked the detail to be a little sharper and the paint is the same sub-par stuff we’ve been seeing for the bulk of these releases. I’d argue that the likeness is certainly there, but is this really much better than they could do in a 3 3/4-inch figure? I don’t think so. In the case of this figure, let’s just say the closer in you get, the less it works, but I guess I’m fairly satisfied.

As for articulation, there’s certainly a good amount of it here. By Episode IV, Obi-Wan’s days of somersaulting ridiculously all over the place were over (thank God!), so I’m not requiring a whole lot from this figure. His arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, and swivels in the thighs. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint in the waist and both a hinge and ball joint in the neck. Below the belt, the plastic robes are slit up the sides so as not to completely hinder the leg movement.

The softgoods cloak fits the figure very well and it looks great on him with the exception of the hood, which doesn’t fit close to the back when its down. That’s understandable, as at this scale there’s no weight to the fabric to let gravity do its job. If I futz with it enough, I can get it to look acceptable. I may look into using a small pin to keep it under control. It does, however, look pretty great with the hood up over his head. You can also pull it further down over his head to hide his face for when he needs to scare off Tusken Raiders. The stitching is neat and I can’t imagine that I’ll be displaying the figure without this on most of the time. This is exactly the sort of thing that was sorely missing from the Jedi Knight Luke figure a few waves back.

I’ve already mentioned the lightsaber accessory and how my blade doesn’t want to detach. Otherwise, this is a pretty great little piece and the sculpt and paintwork on the hilt are both exceptionally good. In fact, I’d say this is arguably the best looking lightsaber hilt this line has produced.

In the end, Obi-Wan turned out to be a pretty solid figure. He represents the usual ups and downs that characterize most of these 6-inch Black Series releases. The sculpt is overall pretty good, the cloth robe is a great, albeit in this case essential, addition, and if Hasbro could just invest a little more in the paint quality on these figures, they could really raise the bar a couple of notches.

Feb 13 2017

Marvel Legends (Abomination Wave): “Secret War” Captain America and Iron Skull by Hasbro

Welcome to another Marvel Monday, folks, and as promised I’m tackling two figures from the Marvel Legends Abomination Wave today, and both are interesting choices on Hasbro’s part. We’ve got Cap in a one-off costume that is pulled from a Bendis comic that’s got to be about almost a decade old by now and Red Skull donning a stolen suit of Iron Man’s armor, which I believe appeared in the animated series, Avengers Assemble.

Both figures come in packages branded “Captain America” and I’ve seen a lot of confusion and tepid reactions to these figures. While I’ll admit that I wasn’t jonesing to get a figure of Cap in this uniform and I don’t watch the Avengers Assemble cartoon, I’m actually really happy to be getting this pair. Cap is one of my favorite Marvel characters, so I welcome any and all variants of him, and as we’ll soon see Iron Skull is not only a cool idea, but he’s just plain bad ass. Let’s check out Cap first…

Obviously, a super-special top secret mission for SHIELD deserves a super-special new outfit, and that was the case with most of the heroes appearing in this book. Cap’s outfit is pretty rad, in that it preserves his love for the red, white, and blue, while still presenting something different. The bulk of the costume is a very dark blue with a large white band around the middle of each arm, two white vertical stripes flanking both sides of his abs, and a white pin stripe running down the middle of his chest and the front of each of his legs. He’s got a large silver star emblazoned on his chest and an American flag tampo’ed on his left shoulder. The whole ensemble is tied together with some silver knee pads and a silver belt.

In terms of fresh sculpting, we get some fabulous buccaneer boots and flared gauntlets, with red striping. I really dig these, as they add a significant touch of classic to what is otherwise a brand new look. I also like the silver stripes on the joints of his fingers.

The head sculpt features a very distinctive hood with red and white pin stripes running from front to back and some damn cool wings painted on the side that almost look like sickles. And as long as we’re on the subject of paint, the quality of application here is pretty solid. There’s a little bleed through evident in some areas of the white, but overall it isn’t too bad. It’s also nice to see that they painted the pins in the elbows to match the white.

The articulation here holds no surprises. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and double hinged elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels at both the thighs and the tops of the boots, double hinges in the knees, and the ankles feature both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a swivel at the waist, an ab crunch in the torso, and both a hinge and ball joint in the neck. The joints all feel great and he’s tons of fun to pose.

You get two accessories with Cap, although they are designed to go together. First, you get a pretty standard shield. It’s got both a peg and a clip, so he can wear it on his back or equip it on his wrist.

The other accessory is an extra right hand and effect part that you can peg the shield into and give him a throwing effect. I didn’t have high hopes for this thing when I first saw pictures of it, but in hand, I’ve found it to be lots of fun. Moving on to Iron Skull…

The idea of Red Skull getting a hold of one of Stark’s armors just tickles me in all the right ways, so I’m not going to jump on board with the haters screaming that this is just an excuse to re-use and re-sell an Iron Man body. This is the Mark 43 figure, to be specific, which was the same as the Mark 42. And damn, does it look great here. It’s been given a properly eeeevil black finish with some bitchin red panel lines. Seriously, I love this thing.

The head sculpt here is absolutely fantastic. It retains that creepy, yet super-stylized look that I love so much. It also features some fantastic paint. It’s too bad I’ll probably almost never use it, because the figure also comes with…

THIS! It’s the helmet with a Red Skull motif and oh my god, I love it so much! Seriously, while collectors everywhere scream, WTF, HASBRO? over this figure, I’m just loving it to pieces.

I’m not going to go over the articulation, as I’ve already looked at this body not once, but twice. I will say that while it’s overall decent, there are some things that bug me about it, like the restricted range of motion in the ankles.

I was pretty happy about getting these figures ever since they were first revealed and I’m just as happy to have them in hand. They’re both nice nods to very specific aspects of the Marvel extended universe and that’s exactly the kind of thing I like to get in my action figure collection. The remarkably prolific nature of Legends has made this line all about universe building for me these days, and that’s what these figures are all about.

Feb 9 2017

Transformers Titans Return: Darkmoon and Astrotrain by Hasbro

It feels like a while since I last did a proper Transformers Thursday, especially with my schedule change in January, but regular Thursday content is back in full swing, and while I can’t promise every Thursday will be about little plastic convertorobots, I’ll do my best to deliver where I can. Today, I’m checking out Titans Return Astrotrain, a figure that I’ve been looking forward to, because quite frankly the old Classics version just doesn’t cut it for me anymore and I recently unloaded it on Ebay to make way for this guy.

And he’s a Voyager. I love that! Astrotrain was the Decepticons’ go to mode of interplanetary mass transportation whenever the series forgot that they could all just fly through space on their own. And while you still couldn’t fit any of the other figures in here, it just makes sense to me that he should be bigger than a Deluxe. Naturally, Astrotrain is still a Triple Changer, and I’m going to kick things off with his shuttle mode first!

So, I really dig this mode. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping for something more traditional, but I can get behind this design. This alt mode looks like a cross between a traditional NASA shuttle and a Cybertronian craft. It’s big and beefy and looks like it was made for battle rather than exploration. Part of that comes from the turret-like gun emplacements on the pylons under each wing. These really remind me of the ones on Armada’s Tidal Wave or even the ones on Energon Omega Supreme. In fact, this figure has a couple of call-backs that really bring that Omega Supreme toy to mind. The shuttle is absolutely loaded with sculpted detail, mostly in the form of panel lines. You also get sculpted windows, some flaps on the back, and what look like some kind of tiny doors on the dorsal surface. I’d like to think that these are missile bay doors. I can just picture an Itano Circus pouring out of the top and swarming toward poor Cosmos as he hauls ass to escape it.

The coloring here is pretty simple, but so much better than the white Classics version. The top of the shuttle is a beautiful shade of traditional Decepticon purple, while the main body of the craft is gray and black. There’s precious little here in the way of paint apps, as this toy mostly lets the colored plastic do the talking, but it’s still a nice looking toy and I can’t argue with these colors. You do get a pair of crisp Decepticon emblems stamped on the wings. It’s probably worth qualifying here that while I love the coloring on this figure, the Takara version is so much better. I decided a while back that I wasn’t going to pay more for Takara paint jobs, only new molds, but here was one release where I cam close to making an exception.

Astrotrain’s little Titan Master is called Darkmoon, which is a pretty bitchin’ name. He shares the same purple and gray plastic coloring as his big bot buddy. There’s no paint apps on him and he has the same articulation as the rest of the Titan Masters. That includes a ball jointed head, ball jointed shoulders, and hinges in the hips and knees, with the legs fused together. Astrotrain’s cockpit is at the top of the tail section and includes a purple tinted canopy, which again reminds me of the canopy on that Energon Omega Surpreme toy.

Astrotrain comes with two guns, which can mount in various places on the shuttle, one of which is designed to fit a Titan Master in a seated position like an outrigger. I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I kind of dig this gimmick, as it reminds me a bit of something I might have made with some of the old Micronauts toys. You can even plug the other gun into it to make a really obnoxious looking gunning station. On the downside, I would have really loved a pair of the other gun to plug into those sockets under the tail fins. Having two different guns goes against my love of symmetry in my Transformers armaments. OK, enough said about the shuttle, let’s check out the train mode.

Yeah, I’m not really loving this. While the shuttle mode took its share of liberties and worked, this futuristic bullet train just isn’t doing it for me. Frankly, it looks less like a train and more like it’s a few tweaks away from either being a battleship or a submarine. Once again, I’m going to go back to Energon Omega Supreme, because this really reminds me of the combined mode of his bizarre crane-train-and-battleship monstrosity. From the canopy at the top of the tower to the battleship-style turrets, I’d be hard pressed to believe that Energon Omega wasn’t the inspiration behind this mode. The only train elements I get off of this are the “cow catchers” on the front and back and the rather unconvincing rail wheels molded into the flip down panels. The deco remains very close to what we saw in the shuttle mode, and once again there’s plenty of sculpted detail like panel lines and tiny hatches and ladders, which give a good idea of how ginormous this thing is supposed to be. In the end, I think I’m going to forget this mode exists. So let’s deep six this choo-choo and check out the robot mode!

Now this is where it’s at! From the front, I’ve got precious little to complain about here. Yeah, I really wish they had given him the split tail fin chest shield. That tab there is just aching for it and it seems like it would have been easy to include it as just a piece that gets set aside when the figure is in his alt modes. Other then that, this guy is just fabulous. There’s something about him, and I can’t put my finger on it, that just makes him look a little above and beyond the usual Hasbro Voyagers. Maybe it’s the quality of plastic, maybe it’s the cut panel lines. Whatever it is, I’m at a loss for words. The front of the figure’s color palate dumps a lot of the purple, relegating it to the sides of the legs and fists, in favor of a largely gray and black deco.

From the back, we can see where most of that purple went. It’s also here that I have my biggest complaint about the figure and that’s his lower legs. They look with the train fronts sticking out, like they want to be heel spurs, but aren’t. Swivel cuts here would have done a world of good, not only aesthetically, but also to help balance the figure a little better. But I suppose these are minor complaints.

Astrotrain can make use of the turrets from his alt modes as extra armament when he’s in robot mode. I approve of this!

Darkmoon makes for a mighty fine head. Yeah, the face sculpt is a little soft, but I still like what they did here. You have the option of deploying two pylons on the sides of his head by pressing a lever below his chest. I don’t like these, I’m not even sure why they’re there, so I’m glad they’re optional.

Of course, Astrotrain can wield the two weapons we saw with vehicle mode as rifles. I’m sticking with just the one that isn’t designed to sit the Titan Master.

While it may sound like I have more than a few issues with Astrotrain, the good here certainly outweighs the bad. I love the robot mode, I like the shuttle mode, and the train mode… well, two out of three ain’t bad. There’s just a lot to love about this figure and he’s definitely a step up from the Classics version, which has been a sub-standard stand in for Astrotrain for quite a while. I’m certain glad I didn’t cave in and grab one of those pricey Third Party Astrotrain efforts. While they are definite improvements on this guy, I’m perfectly happy sticking with this toy for the money.

Feb 6 2017

Marvel Legends (Abomination Wave): Scarlet Witch by Hasbro

Marvel Legends continues to both amaze and befuddle me. Obviously, it’s being driven by the marketing juggernaut (HA!) that is the Disney-Marvel cinematic machine. And yet when it comes to Legends figures, the comic-based and often more obscure characters have outnumbered the cinematic counterparts. Now, I’m not complaining… not really. Having figures like Shocker, Batroc, and Eel swinging on the pegs is a wonderful thing. But I’m still surprised that Hasbro has been so slow in giving us MCU versions of many main characters.

Case in point, I’m only now getting a Legends MCU Scarlet Witch, with Hasbro passing over her premier in Age of Ultron and going straight for Civil War. And here, she’s seemingly thrown into an otherwise totally comic-based wave like an afterthought. It’s weird, but nonetheless welcome. What’s more, this figure turned out so damn amazing… it’s almost magical! All puns aside. I love this figure!

I really love the evolution of Wanda’s costume in the movies. She starts out with the almost gypsy-like outfit in Age of Ultron (which I happily have represented in Hot Toys form) and streamlines it to something that looks similar, but a lot more polished and more suited to super hero scuffles. Hasbro really nailed it here in their 6-inch version. I really dig what they did with her corset. It’s got that vertical ribbing and some great stitching down the front. The slightly metallic red they used for it looks fantastic and the front lacing is neatly panted in black.

The jacket, however, is the real star of this little plastic costume. I’ll be the first to admit that the whole trench coat look is getting more than a bit tired, especially in super hero films, but I think this just works splendidly. Every little detail is sculpted in from the overall texture to the stitching on the belt and the reinforced patches on the elbows and shoulders. I also really dig the way it fans out at the bottom. It creates a nice dramatic look and also helps keep it from interfering with her articulation. Even the color is just perfect. They also did a wonderful job on her finger-less gloves.

And then you have the portrait. Would I recognize this as Elizabeth Olsen? Nah, probably not. If you tell me this is Elizabeth Olsen can I see a little of her in there? Sure, why not. Either way, I think it’s a fantastic looking sculpt. I’m tempted to say they went a little too heavy on the rouge, but then I think it adds a little warmth to the face. It’s certainly miles better than what they did to poor Daisy Ridley with the 6-inch Star Wars Black Rey figure. The sculpted hair here looks great too, although it does work against the neck articulation.

Speaking of articulation, Wanda’s stacks up pretty well. She’s got rotating hinges in her shoulders, elbows, and wrists, but sadly no bicep swivels. Her legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivel cuts in the thighs, and double hinges in the knees. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. She’s got a ball joint just under the chest, and another in the neck. Yes, this is case where I really do miss those bicep swivels. They would have allowed for a lot more spell-slinging poses, but I’m still having a good time with what we got.

About the only knock I have against Scarlet Witch are the crappy effect parts she came with. No, I’m usually not one for effect parts in the first place, but these just look terrible. There’s no subtlety or craft about them. They’re just giant swirls of transparent red plastic. If I didn’t know anything about her character and I saw these, I’d guess her power was shooting flames out of her hands. Here’s a case where I like the comic-style hex effects much better.

Good thing I have about a thousand pairs of those in almost every color of the rainbow! I went with the pink ones! It’s appropriate, because I think those are the ones that came with comic-based Scarlet Witch.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to this wave. In fact, the only reason I picked up most of the figures in it was because they were $10 each on Amazon, and if I had waited, I would have found they went even lower. Of course, Scarlet Witch was the exception. I actually wound up forking over $25 for her, but it was worth every penny. She’s a fantastic figure and a long overdue addition to my MCU Legends shelf. And while Wanda deserved her own slot on Marvel Monday, I can’t say the same for the rest of the figures that make up this Abomination Wave. There’s nothing terrible here, but nothing terribly exciting either. So I’ll be doubling up on a lot of the rest so I can get in and get out a little faster than usual.

And just a reminder, I’m starting my new (hopefully for keeps this time) update schedule this week with new content on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I’ll still be rotating Saturdays, but I do believe I’ll have an Anime Saturday ready for this week.

Feb 1 2017

Star Wars Black: AT-AT Driver by Hasbro

I’m pressed for time today, but I also wanted to dig into the newest wave of Star Wars 6-inch Black Series figures, so I’m going with the one figure in this assortment that I have the least to say about: The AT-AT Driver! Of course, that shouldn’t be mistaken for a general lack of affection for this guy.

Somewhere along the way, I fell into the misconception that AT-AT Drivers were just repainted TIE Pilots. It’s an easy mistake to make, although with how long I’ve been collecting Star Wars figures, you’d think I would have known better. Indeed, playing around with this figure really made me appreciate how different the two designs are and in some cases, they are oddly different. For example, the AT-AT Driver has the leg harness that we see on most of the Rebel Pilot flight suits. Why does the AT-AT Driver have those, but the TIE Pilot doesn’t? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? These aren’t questions I can answer here, so let’s just check out the damn figure.

Wow, he’s fantastic! Well, except for one glaring problem he’s fantastic, but I’ll get to that in a bit. I’ve always been partial to this design, although to be honest the pair that I had as a kid rarely left my Kenner AT-AT’s head. And the pair of modern 3 3/4-inchers that I now own rarely ever leave Hasbro’s Super AT-AT’s head. Well, here’s one that I’ll be able to display on his own, because obviously there ain’t no 6-inch Super AT-AT to put him in and let’s be honest, it’s never coming. Although, a properly scaled cockpit would be cool!

The sculpt here is excellent. You get all kinds of rumples, stitching, pockets, and texturing in the underlying jumpsuit. The boots are nice and chunky, the gauntlets look great, and the shoulder armor is cast in soft and pliable plastic so as not to impede the articulation. I would have liked more of a matte finish for the suit, but Hasbro went for bare plastic, which has a glossy sheen to it.

I really dig the attention to detail on the control box. The sculpt is so sharp and the paint is neat and carefully applied. Same goes for the box on his back. The hoses run from the box to the cylinders on the back of the helmet and are flexible enough to allow the head to move unhindered.

Besides the control box on the chest, it’s always been the helmet on these guys that I loved the most, and Hasbro went all out recreating it for this figure and he’d be just about perfect if it wasn’t for that majorly droopy Imperial Insignia on the right side of his helmet. Dammit, Hasbro! You were so close here and you blew it on an easy one! To be fair, that emblem droop doesn’t bother me nearly as much as I thought it would, but it’s still going to make me hunt down another one of these.

The articulation is as good as we get with the regular troopers. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, and hips. The knees are double hinged, there are swivel cuts in the thighs, and the ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint buried in the chest and another under the helmet. And while this guy is probably used to just sitting down and driving his AT-AT you can get some nice poses out of him. Toss in the E-11 Blaster that he comes with and he’s ready for action. It would have been cool to get an homage to the rifle that came with the vintage figure too, but oh well!

Don’t let my brevity today fool you into thinking I don’t totally dig this figure, because I sure do. Is it really any better than Hasbro has done in the 3 3/4-inch scale? Probably not. But, Hasbro hit all the right points on this guy, save for one damn sloppy emblem placement, and I’m very happy to have him joining my 6-inch scaled Imperial Forces. Even though he’s got nothing to drive, he’s an important figure that I can finally check off my Black Series want list. Now to go hunt down a better one…

Jan 31 2017

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

Wow, the Doctor Strange Wave was a big assortment of figures! With your average Build-A-Figure comprised of about six parts, the eight figures that constituted the Dormammu Wave seemed like an awful lot. What’s more, every single figure came with BAF parts and this was a wave that I hunted individually, rather than ordering all at once, making completing this one quite the journey. But here we are at the end, and its time to cobble together the big baddie himself, Dormammu!

Of course, if you happened to be lucky enough to pick up the Marvel Legends SDCC set from last year, you already own a variant of this figure. It’s been a while since I set eyes on that figure but, if I recall correctly, the differences are minor. If you count everything, The Dormammu BAF is actually comprised of eleven pieces. You have the arms, the legs, the upper torso, the pelvis, the skirt, the head, the shoulder armor, and the two skull accessories. With that having been said, he still pieces together pretty easily, although one of the legs on mine was a bit problematic. It should be pointed out that the Doctor Strange film did something similar with Dormammu that Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer did with Galactus. They turned him into a massive, and somewhat amorphous, entity whereas this is clearly the comic version. The character stretches all the way back to the 60s, but this figure is certainly inspired by his modern appearances.

The buck itself is fairly generic with a lot of sculpted muscles cast in a beautiful metallic purple. The hands are molded into grasping claws and there’s some original sculpting for the boots. At least I don’t recall seeing these boots before. The belt piece is cast in soft plastic and features a half cape in the back, two thigh pieces and a red segmented flap that hangs down the front. It’s slit enough to allow for some pretty good movement in the legs. The red paint on the flap also matches nicely with the paint on his abs, making it look like it’s all one piece. The shoulder armor is impressive and features two large spikes rising up from the front as well as a fashionable high collar in the back. The articulation here is pretty standard stuff. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, wrists, and hips, double hinges in the elbows and knees, and swivels in the biceps and thighs. The ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers, the waist swivels, there’s an ab crunch hinge in the torso, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed.

The design of the head is very cool. It looks like a mask floating in a sea of fire, and to me it’s very reminiscent of the look of Helspont from Jim Lee’s WildCATS, another favorite comic villain design of mine. The translucent orange flame can even sport some nice effects when introduced to the proper lighting.

Dormammu comes with two pairs of glowing skulls, which are pretty damn cool. The skulls are cast in transparent neon green plastic with translucent blue flames coming off the tops. These catch the light beautifully and he looks damn great holding them. Oh, and if they look familiar, that’s because they’re both Ghost Rider heads from the 2012 release.

To be honest, Dormammu was not high on my list of characters that I wanted for my Legends shelves, but that doesn’t make him less welcome. With the 3 3/4-inch Marvel Universe releases sputtering on life support, Legends has become prolific and deep enough to step up and become my universe building line for Marvel figures and as such no character is really unwelcome. Besides, I really dig this guy and he’s loads of fun to play with. Dormammu is a solid figure and I know a number of collectors were relieved to have the opportunity to pick him up outside what has become a very pricey exclusive box set. He also beautifully caps off what was an overall excellent assortment of figures.

On the next Marvel Monday, I’ll be backtracking to the Abomination Wave. At only five figures, it’s a hell of a lot smaller than this one, and I’ll likely be doubling up at least once in order to get through it a bit more quickly.

Jan 30 2017

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): Doctor Strange and Astral Doctor Strange by Hasbro

Well, in spite of a LEGO inspired detour on the last Marvel Monday, I’m finally here to open up the last figures in the Doctor Strange Wave of Marvel Legends. With how long it took me to get through this assortment, it’s surprising that there’s still a month left until the Blu-Ray release of the movie. I’m excited to get it on disc and give it another watch, because I was a little luke-warm on it when I saw it in the theater and I’m hoping that assessment will improve on subsequent viewings. Anyway, I’m doubling up today for obvious reasons, as we’re looking at the MCU version of Strange as well as the variant Astral Projection version of him.

Here we have what were the easiest and most difficult figures in the wave for me to get. The Astral Strange is clogging pegs everywhere and going for super cheap online. Regular Strange was nowhere to be found around here and I wound up having to pay a premium for him online. Craziness! Let’s start with him…

While I wasn’t in love with the movie, I adored the look of MCU Strange’s costume and I thought Cumberbatch did a great job with the character. I’m happy to say that Hasbro also did a great job with the 6-inch Legends version. Strange is built on an appropriately lean body with sculpted blue robes, the lower half of which are separate from the buck and sculpted as part of the rather intricate system of belts. There’s plenty of great detailing in his robes, from the texturing on those belts to the leather wraps around his sleeves. And even the smallest of the brass fixtures are painted. There are a few instances where the paint on my figure could have been tighter. For example, the belts, but there’s nothing here that’s really bad.

The Amulet of Agamotto is also a separate piece and hangs around his neck. I love that this isn’t sculpted as part of the buck and that it can be taken off and treated as an accessory.

The Cloak of Levitation can be removed and added without even having to pop off the figure’s head. Hasbro did a wonderful job with the Cloak right down to the painted fixtures that hold the neck straps. It sits on the figure in a very singular manner, draping heavily over the left shoulder, but its worn mostly off of his right. It works for a lot of great poses, but sometimes it feels a little too specific a sculpt to me.

No doubt, Cumberbatch is a very distinctive looking fellow, but in this case that seems to lend itself well to a recognizable portrait. I think this is a fantastic likeness and just an all around great head sculpt. Both the paint and the facial features are sharp and well defined.

The articulation here is good, but some of the joints can be a little tricky to work with. The rundown includes rotating hinges in the shoulders, wrists, and hips, double hinges in both the elbows and the knees, swivels in the biceps, thighs, and boots, and ball joints in the waist and both a hinge and ball joint in the neck. The ankles feature both hinges and lateral rockers. As expected, the lower half of the tunic inhibits some of that hip articulation, but you can still get him in a decent, wide stance. It’s worth noting that this figure can pull apart at the waist, so if you want you can remove the lower tunic piece. The figure looks fine without it and it allows for some better movement in the legs.

Strange comes with two sets of hands. There are accessory holding hands, which feel out of place on the figure, but are good for… well, holding his accessory, which I’ll get to in a second. The other, more appropriate hands are the oogity-boogity spell-slinging mitts. These looks great and will likely be displayed on my figure most of the time.

That accessory is a big magic effect wheel, which he can hold in either of the above mentioned hands. This piece is cast in a semi-translucent orange-yellow plastic and is a beautiful sculpt. I applaud Hasbro for giving us something new here and not just recycling the magic effect pieces we’ve been seeing a lot of lately. Of course, it’s nice to have a lot of those in my Legends accessory bin to lend to Strange if I want to. Let’s move on to Astral Strange…

I actually have next to nothing to say about this figure. It’s a straight re-cast of the figure I just looked at only in a rather striking pearlescent plastic. He doesn’t come with the Cloak, but he does have a repainted Amulet of Agamotto. To be honest, I think this idea sounds good on paper, but in practice, it just isn’t a very interesting figure, much less one that I would have purchased if not for needing the BAF piece. That’s saying a lot, because there are very few modern Legends figures that I feel that way about. I think this one would have been better relegated to the SDCC set with this slot going to Magick instead. Yup, I’m still bitter about that one.

In the end, I wound up paying $30 for the MCU Doctor Strange. I’ve had to do that before with Legends figures that were in high demand, but I’m actually surprised that was the case with this particular figure. That’s not to say I mind all that much. For starters, he is an excellent figure, but at the same time, a lot of the other figures in this wave were remarkably cheap, with three of them only costing me around $12 each. In the end, I made out alright even after having to pay a premium for this Strange.

I’m going to go off and recharge my magics and I’ll actually be back tomorrow to extend Marvel Monday one more day and finish off this wave with a look at the Dormammu Build-A-Figure. After that, I’ll be doing updates on Wednesday and Friday and then next week I’ll be starting in on a new routine of updates on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday!

Jan 16 2017

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): Iron Fist by Hasbro

Iron Fist is the next character to get the spotlight from Marvel’s Netflix endeavors and I’m pretty excited about what I’ve seen so far. It seems only natural to keep him in the spotlight on the toy aisles to, and so Hasbro dropped Iron Fist into this Doctor Strange Wave. The mystical connection is certainly there, but I could think of a few more appropriate figures that they could have slotted into this wave. I would have particularly loved a wide release of Magick. But then I think… hey, it’s Iron Fist… he’s cool!

There’s no actual Doctor Strange branding on the package and Iron Fist actually gets his own logo down at the bottom. If you’re getting a twinge of Deja Vous from this release, it’s because we just saw Iron Fist (in his white outfit) about a year ago in the Allfather Wave. But don’t roll your eyes just yet, because…

If you were grumbling about getting a straight repaint of the last Iron Fist, you should be pleasantly surprised, because this one is all new. I liked the last release a lot, it’s an incredibly fun figure, but it did use that carry-over body from Hasbro’s old Legends line, which included those terrible ball hips, but I’ll get back to those when I talk articulation. This body sculpt strikes me as more fluid and natural, and less like one of those pose-able artist’s anatomy dolls. It’s just a lean, mean kung-fu-fighting machine.

Of course, the costume is achieved mostly through a painted buck, and even with that having been said, the paint is minimal. You get a mostly green body with yellow painted boots and his emblem printed on his chest. The fists and wraps are new sculpts and the belt is sculpted as a separate piece.

The previous Iron Fist head was passable, but this one is excellent. Granted, it’s a very different style. The exposed lower half of the face features some sharp detail and the mask looks great and features the long, loose ties streaming off the back.

This is the Pizza Spidey buck, so the articulation is both familiar and excellent. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinged elbows, and swivels in the biceps and about halfway through the forearms. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinged knees, swivels in the thighs, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. The torso features a swivel at the waist, an ab crunch hinge, and those wonderful lateral crunches in the shoulders. The head has both a hinge and a ball joint.

While this version of Iron Fist doesn’t include the plethora of extra hands the last release had, you do get a pair of glowing fists, achieved through translucent yellow plastic. You also get two translucent yellow effect parts, which can be used over either pairs of fists to give him flaming fists of fury!

So, some may cry foul at getting another Iron Fist so soon, but it’s hard for me to argue when the figure is this good. And, boy is he good! Throw in the fact that I relate to his green costume a lot more than his white one, and this figure is actually a very welcome variant-slash-do-over. Next Monday I’m going to wrap this wave up with a look at both variants of the MCU Doctor Strange and follow it up with Dormammu himself!

And now is as good a time as any to declare that my new posting schedule is not working out so well, so next month I’ll be changing it up, hopefully for the last time, and going to a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday rotation. Yes, it’s only adding one more Feature a week, but I’m afraid I was going to fall too far behind if I continued with just three. Hopefully this will be the happy compromise I’m looking for I have been getting a lot more time in on my backlog of video games and comics, and I think the one day off in the middle of the week will be enough to keep that going.

And no, I haven’t forgotten about the occasional Anime Saturdays, I’ll have another one of those ready for the end of this week.

Jan 9 2017

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): Karl Mordo by Hasbro

Yup, I’m still working my way through the Doctor Strange wave of Marvel Legends, and at this rate I’m at least on course to get through it all before the film hits home release. Oh, and if you haven’t seen the film yet, I’ll toss out a spoiler warning here now. But, c’mon… it’s been out long enough!

I have mixed feelings about the way the MCU treated Mordo in Doctor Strange. On the one hand, I was expecting him to be revealed as the villain to be a turning point in the movie, and I think that would have made for a more interesting story (remember, I liked this movie, but I didn’t love it). On the other hand, having him be a decent guy for the bulk of the film and doing the turn as part of the post-credit stinger, probably gave him some more depth and gives me something to really look forward to in the inevitable sequel. I’ll also confess that I really adore Chiwetel Ejiofor as an actor. He proffered a solid performance in this film, and if his wonderful performance in Serenity is any indication, he has the potential to be the best villain in the MCU since Loki. OK, granted that isn’t saying a lot, but my point is I am super excited to see him and Strange face off in the future. Anyway, with that huge digression, let’s take a look at the figure…

Mordo dons sculpted mystical robes quite similar to what he wore in the film. There are some minor inconsistencies, but overall I think Hasbro did a decent job with the costume. The top half of the costume is sculpted as part of the buck, whereas the bottom is soft plastic and hangs down around the legs. You get some nice detail in the form of cut lines and texturing, which to me are reminiscent (maybe a bit too much) of the costume designs for MCU’s version of Asgard.

There’s a lot of detail in the belt, although the frayed trim that is supposed to hang down from the belt is just sculpted onto the robes and isn’t terribly convincing. Am I nitpicking? Probably. While the deco here is fairly muted, you do get a nice range of colors, including two shades of green, some gray, some blue, and black. The color scheme gives a bit of a nod to Baron Mordo in the comics. All the paint on my figure is very sharp and clean. With all that having been said, I just don’t find this figure terribly exciting and that falls more on the design than it does on Hasbro’s efforts. Plus, since I haven’t opened my MCU Doctor Strange yet, Mordo is quite the loner right now and forced to hang out with the comic-based figures.

The portrait is quite good and hits all the right points for me in sculpt, paint, and likeness. It’s a sharp sculpt that picks out enough characteristics in Chiwetel Ejiofor to make it recognizable to me. Incidentally, this is one of those many times, I’m happy I stick with written reviews, as I don’t have to butcher his name by trying to pronounce it. One odd thing worth mentioning is the really obvious seam running down the front of his neck. Weird.

The articulation here holds no surprises. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and double hinges in the elbows. It’s worth noting that the hinge on the right hand is orientated front to back, while the one on the left hand is side to side. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels at the thighs. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint in the chest and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed.

In addition to the BAF parts, Mordo comes with his staff. It’s obviously a very simple accessory with just some wood texturing in the sculpt. It’s a little bendy, which is expected, yet nonetheless disappointing. And here’s the one place that the figure really stumbles for me and that’s not having a way for him to wear the staff on his back like he did in the film. A separate cross strap with a simple loop in the back would have been extremely welcome here.

Mordo is a nice enough figure, but I think he suffers from a bit of a boring design, as well as being a sort of “one-off” release. I mean, sure we were going to get an MCU version of Doctor Strange, but then to just give us Mordo and not The Ancient One and Kaecilius seems like an odd choice. I mean, even as I was writing up this piece, I was wondering, “is anyone even going to care enough about this figure to read it?” Maybe once he becomes a proper bad ass, presumably in the next film, but then he’ll likely get a new costume and a new figure. Indeed, if Hasbro wasn’t going to go deep into the movie’s characters for this wave, I would have just rather they gave us comic book Baron Mordo, so I could put Strange on my MCU shelf and have a Mordo for my comic shelf. There’s certainly precedent for that, as they gave us a comic version of Batroc instead of the MCU version from Winter Soldier. Ah, but I’m probably being too picky.

Jan 4 2017

Transformers Titans Return: Blowpipe and Triggerhappy by Hasbro

It’s the first Transformers Thursday of the new year and… oh, shit. That’s right, it’s Wednesday. This new schedule is going to take some time to get used to. Either way, it’s time to check out the last of the Wave 3 Deluxes from Titans Return and it is indeed the wonderfully named, Triggerhappy!

I’m in uncharted waters here, because I have had next to no dealings with the G1 incarnation of this character. Never owned the toy. Never encountered the character in any of the fiction. I only know that he was a Decepticon Targetmaster that turned into a spaceship, and his Targetmaster was Blowpipe. This should be refreshing! Let’s start with his alt mode…

If I were to express sexual desire in the form of a high-powered Decepticon attack craft, surely this would be it. Indeed, this sexy ship looks like it would be right at home in any number of top-down arcade shooters and that’s a big part of why I love it so very much. With an ultra-aggressive profile and bristling with laser cannons, Triggerhappy is so very aptly named, and I’ll bet his alt mode makes all the other ‘Cons rage with jealousy. The ship design is finished off with detachable guns under the forward-angled wings and a single folding landing gear under the cockpit. Simply magnificent!

The coloring here is pretty good as well. You get a two-tone deco of pale gray and royal blue plastics, along with some lovely gold and silver paint apps on some of the vents and panels. The wings are striped and have Decepticon emblems in the traditional purple and silver, and there’s an additional emblem, in white, stamped right behind the cockpit.

Blowpipe is a pretty typical little Titan Master. There’s no paint, but at least he’s composed of the same blue and gray plastics as Triggerhappy, giving him a little variety in color. The cockpit’s canopy hinges open in the middle giving the little guy a place to sit.

Triggerhappy’s transformation is both very easy and pretty clever. Basically, the nose of the ship and the back of the ship rotate to switch positions, allowing the cockpit to split apart, which makes the final robot mode look like the transformation should be a lot more complicated than it is. Truth is, you can convert this guy back and forth very quickly, and that’s always a big plus for me when playing with my change-o-bots. But, can Triggerhappy’s robot mode possibly rival such an amazing alt mode?

Yes it can… and it does! As mentioned above, the cockpit splits so he’s wearing part of it on his lower torso with the nosecone packed onto his back. The torso and legs are amazingly clean and well proportioned, and even the wings on his lower legs look more like a style choice than actual kibble. In fact, the only real kibble here are the back swept wings on the shoulders and the dual cannons that are folded up on each arm, but I’m OK with that, because those cannons have a purpose in that they can be folded down to give Triggerhappy some insane arm rifles.

They can be made even crazier if you plug the rifles into them. It’s not my personal favorite way to display him, but options like this are always fun to have.

Triggerhappy looks pretty solid from the back too. Yeah, he’s got those hollow lower legs. Some of the Titans Return figures have been good about closing them up, others don’t seem to care. The nosecone from the spaceship mode isn’t terribly bulky and it stays put nicely when posing and playing with the figure, and those extra long heel spurs help keep this fellow standing upright. Even those wings that hang off his shoulders are kind of stylish and they don’t get in the way of his arms too badly.

The toy’s deco doesn’t really change much in robot mode. You still get a pleasing balance between the blue and gray plastics, with the same silver and gold paintwork showing. I think the gold thrusters on the shoulders look great and I really dig the way the white Decepticon emblem lands right in the middle of his chest. And I have to say, I absolutely love the head sculpt on this guy. There’s certainly an unusual Optimus Prime resemblance in there, which comes from the combination of the “helmet” and the face plate. The yellow paint on the eyes and red face plate both look great.

Naturally, the guns that un-peg from under the spacecraft’s wings can be wielded as rifles. If I’m nitpicking, I wish these were cast in the blue plastic to offer a little more variety to the coloring. They can be pegged together to form a large double-barrel cannon that Blowpipe can operate, but there’s really nowhere to use it with Triggerhappy. Or at least not one that I’ve found.

This third Wave of Titans Return Deluxes may have been skewed in the Autobots favor by three to one, but that’s OK, because there’s no doubt in my mind that Triggerhappy is the strongest figure in this assortment. Keep in mind, I absolutely adored both Hot Rod and Twinferno, so to give this guy the nod as my favorite… well, that’s saying a lot. It’s hard to think of many Transformers that feature such strong robot and vehicle modes and are this fun to play with. And that catches me up on the Titans Return Deluxe figures. When I revisit this line in a week or so, it’ll be to check out the big daddy of the series… Fortress Maximus!

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: hasbro

Star Wars Black: Obi-Wan Kenobi (A New Hope) by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Abomination Wave): “Secret War” Captain America and Iron Skull by Hasbro

Transformers Titans Return: Darkmoon and Astrotrain by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Abomination Wave): Scarlet Witch by Hasbro

Star Wars Black: AT-AT Driver by Hasbro

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

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): Doctor Strange and Astral Doctor Strange by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): Iron Fist by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): Karl Mordo by Hasbro

Transformers Titans Return: Blowpipe and Triggerhappy by Hasbro

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