Jan 2 2017

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): Nico Minoru by Hasbro!

While there are changes coming to FFZ this year, Marvel Mondays will not be one of them. I now have two complete Waves waiting to be featured, unfinished business with a third, and yet another that I haven’t even started buying yet. And with that, let’s continue through the Doctor Strange Wave and kick off the New Year with a certain little Witchy Woman… Nico Minoru!

Nico is the other half of the “Mystic Rivals” slot, sharing it with The Enchantress, so her name doesn’t actually appear on the front. It’s a pretty ballsy move on Hasbro’s part, because let’s face it, Nico probably isn’t a household Marvel name. I’m sorry to say that I’m not a big fan of the current run of The Runaways. She has, however, appeared in a number of other event books, but I remember her most fondly as Sister Grimm in the Mystic Arcana mini-series. She certainly fits this wave quite well, as she’s not only part of Marvel’s mystical side, but was one of the runners up to possibly become Sorcerer Supreme before the job fell to Brother Voodoo.

Looking every bit the *ahem* runaway from Father Flanagan’s Home for Unwanted Goth Kids, Nico presents as one of the most unique looking figures to come out of the modern run of Marvel Legends, and I absolutely love that! With her black dress, chunky belted boots, black and purple striped tights, and long black gloves, she looks like she’d be more at home in the pages of a Zenescope book than a traditional Marvel comic. The sculpting on this figure is all new and it’s great that Hasbro is willing to invest this kind of tooling on someone like Nico.

The outfit features some nice little details, like the painted lace on her sleeve and the sculpted fringe at the hem of her dress. Her corset-like top has all the stitching sculpted in and the rows of buckles on each of her boots are individually painted silver.

While the costume is great, I think it’s the portrait that really makes this figure shine. It’s a beautiful face sculpt with some very sharp paint for her lips and eyes. And, oh, those eyes! Her red pupils and heavy mascara are totally Goth Chic! The hair is also particularly well sculpted.

The articulation here is pretty spot on, despite being a rather unconventional new buck. The arms have 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 as well as at the tops of the boots. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint just below the chest and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. Even the dress isn’t too restrictive on the hip articulation.

Despite including the rather beefy lower half of Dormammu’s torso, Nico also comes with some pretty cool accessories. First off, you get an interchangeable left arm, which is the same sculpt, but this time partially cast in purple translucent plastic as a spell effect. You just pop out the stock arm at the shoulder joint and pop this one in.

Nico also comes with the Staff of One, which has a removable effect part cast in the same purple plastic as the extra arm. The staff is a very simple sculpt and cast in gold plastic. It’s also, unfortunately, a little bendy and it can be a little tough to get her to hold it once the effect part is wrapped around it. Still, a cool accessory, nonetheless. I really dig that they made the effect part optional.

Nico may just end up being the breakaway figure of this wave for me, despite having only limited exposure to the character. I love everything about this figure and it both surprises and delights me to see Hasbro willing to invest so much in what is very likely to be a one-off buck. I just can’t see any of this going to another character. In a line that is often content (and usually justifiably so) to get by with just repaints of basic bucks, Nico is a stand out release and a real treat in this wave!

Dec 29 2016

Transformers Titans Return: Throttle and Breakaway by Hasbro

I’ve got time to get in just one more Transformers Thursday before 2016 wraps up and it just so happens I’m right in the middle of my look at Wave 3 of the Titans Return Deluxes. I’ve already checked out Hot Rod and Twinferno, now it’s time to look at the one that I was really looking forward to. The figure that I knew was going to be amazing before I got him in hand. That’s right, it’s… Breakaway? Really? This guy? Nah, of course not. I’m being roboto-sarcastic. This figure is the quick-and-dirty repaint that Hasbro snuck in to help cost out the wave.

If you haven’t guessed by the packaged shot, Breakaway is a straight repaint of Chromedome. He’s also an homage to the G1 Powermaster, Getaway, and the Titan Master, Throttle, is an homage to Getaway’s little engine buddy, Rev. Hey, if Hasbro’s going to give us a repaint, at least they did it trying to deliver us another updated G1 toy. Let’s start with his alt mode.

Yup, it’s a white Chromedome. The car design is definitely not a close match for G1 Getaway, unless you’re grading it on the most abstract of scales and count it having four wheels and, well… also being a car. With that having been said, Hasbro tried to match the deco is best they could. You get the red and blue stripes on the sides of the hood and again on the blue panels in front of the rear wheel wells. The red tinted windows and yellow stripe above the windshield is a nice touch too.

On the downside, it loses points for not having a spoiler, especially when you consider one could have been added by a relatively simple remold. I also think that the front grill and headlights are desperately in need of some more paintwork. It’s honestly not a bad looking car, but if I didn’t already know it, I’d be hard pressed to identify this guy as an update to Getaway.

Throttle is a simple enough little bot. As expected, there’s no paint on him, but I will give him credit for not being all one color. In this case, his body is white and his arms, legs, and head are blue. I think it’s odd that they didn’t try to color match Rev, but matching the colors between Titan Master and robot seems to be the order of the day here. As you probably guessed, Throttle does not turn into an engine, but he can sit in the driver compartment of the car and the fact that he’s got a lot of blue in him means that he doesn’t blend in with the same colored plastic interior like a lot of these little guys do.

Breakaway comes with the exact same weapons as Chromedome, this time cast in blue plastic. The toy allows for several different ways to attach the weapons to the car, one of which provides a gunning station on the roof.

Obviously, Breakaway transforms exactly the same as Chromedome and here’s where this toy starts to lose me a little. It feels a bit too much like a throwback to the engineering we saw on some of the Combiner Wars Stunticons. Sure, I loved those toys, but this is a new line with a new direction and after getting so many repaints and remolds of those figures, I’m not crazy about seeing it reproduced here again so soon. And yes, these are all issues I had with Chromedome too. Still, if you can get past the deja vous, the robot mode isn’t bad at all. He looks particularly good from the back because everything packs away very cleanly.

The new deco does its best to differentiate Breakaway from Chromedome. You get paint apps that serve to accentuate this and diminish that. I will say that I was surprised by how good the white plastic looks and feels. I was expecting it to be the cheap stuff Hasbro sometimes uses, but it’s quite good, as is the quality of all the paint applications. The deco, however, doesn’t do that great a job of matching Getaway. The arms aren’t blue, and you don’t have the red on the lower legs. Obviously, the chest is not made up of the roof of the car either, but the deco does feature some red and yellow paint to make it look like a heavily morphed version of the windshield.

The head is a decent enough sculpt, but thanks to the “gray” helmet, the colors don’t match Getaway like they should. Also, while I’m used to seeing mouth plates, Breakaway is really just lacking a face altogether. He’s just got eyes and a big blank under them. It’s kind of creepy.

We already saw that the weapons are the same as Chromedomes. That’s a good thing, because I really like this gun mold.

Cards on the table: If it weren’t for the fact that I bought the whole wave in one go, I wouldn’t have bothered picking up Breakaway at all. Now that I have him, I have to admit that I like him a whole lot more than I thought I would. He will not be going into the dreaded Tote of Unwanted Repaints and instead, I have him displayed with the rest of my Titans Return figures and looking pretty sharp. Yes, the homage to Getaway is quite a stretch, but then Getaway was a figure that I didn’t even remember existed until I consulted some photos of him for this review. Besides, now Rewind can have that Menage-a-Trois he always dreamed about… and film it too!

Dec 26 2016

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): “Masters of Magic” Doctor Strange and Brother Voodoo by Hasbro

So, I’ve decided to go with new content this week, rather then put the blog on autopilot with insufferable lists and hide under a blanket from the encroaching new year. This Friday I will likely be churning out some kind of retrospective and then embrace the New Year weekend from inside of a bottle. Either way, this is still the last Marvel Monday of 2016, and holy hell, even after 52 Marvel Mondays, I’m still falling behind on featuring my Marvel Legends, so let’s double up today with two figures.

Pressing forward through the Doctor Strange Wave, today I’m checking out both of the figures released under the “Masters of Magic” Slot: The comic version of Doctor Strange and Brother Voodoo. I’ll go with Doctor Strange first, because I don’t have a lot to say about this guy.

And that’s because he’s very nearly just a repack of the Doctor Strange we got in the Hulkbuster Wave and I can just refer you back to my earlier review of that release for most of the details. The key difference is that here, Strange has been reunited with the Amulet of Agamotto and the Cloak of Levitation. As for the base figure, the only variation is in his gauntets. The previous release had them sculpting as part of his forearms, while here they’re just painted. It’s a strange (Haha!) change to make. Why would you go through the trouble of taking away sculpting in favor of paint? I think the other version’s gauntlets looked better. But it’s a moot point, because you can easily just swap the Cloak onto the previous release. It’s also worth noting that the red paint on this new figure is a little brighter.

As for the Cloak… it’s a nice piece of work. The high collar looks great, as does the gold painted border with the sculpted scollwork running through it. On the downside, it does make the figure very back-heavy and difficult to stand.

You get the same pair of magical effect parts that were included with the last release, only this time they’re molded in orange plastic instead of green. So, let’s move on to the figure here that I was really looking forward to…

I first met Brother Voodoo as a result of my favorite past-time as an early teen: Bicycling downtown to the used book shop and rifling through their stacks of used comics in a dark corner under the stairs to the second floor. Strange Tales was a title I always bought when I could find it, even if they were practically falling apart. And while I never had a complete run of Brother Voodoo’s stint in the book, but I enjoyed the two issues I did have. Naturally, he’s gone on to feature prominently in some heavy-hitting story-lines and needless to say, I was very happy to see him turn up in this wave. And wow, did they do a nice job on him.

Hailing from the pages of The New Avengers, Voodoo features a basic black buck with the white skeletal motif painted onto it. All the other aspects of the costume are derived from additional pieces. You get the gold wrist bracers, the long green belt with skulls hanging off the back, and the ragged red cape that hangs around his neck. I’ll concede that this is not my favorite look for the character, but I still like it a lot. The costume looks absolutely fantastic and is a fine example of how easy it is to build a great looking figure off a standard buck and some additional parts.

The portrait here is also superb. I love the grim countenance they gave him and his features are well defined.

Brother Voodoo includes a pretty cool staff, which I do remember him having in The New Avengers, although not quite looking exactly like this. Either way, I can’t remember if it has a name or specific purpose. I like the transition from painted wood to translucent blue plastic.

And yes, it is possible to convert Voodoo into The Sorcerer Supreme by giving him the Amulet and the Cloak from Strange. Alas, Voodoo’s hair is a bit at odds with the high collar making it a tight fit, but it certainly works.

I’m tempted to complain about the fact that despite sharing a slot, you still need both of these figures to complete the Dormammu BAF. But then, I probably would have picked up this version of Doctor Strange anyway. It’s just a shame that Hasbro couldn’t have given us this more complete version first, because now that initial release is pretty much superfluous. Either way, taken on their own, these are both great figures and solid entries into this wave.

Dec 22 2016

Transformers Titans Return: Daburu and Twinferno by Hasbro

Welcome, my friends to what might be the last Transformers Thursday of 2016! Then again, it might not. Stick around at the end for some administrative notes on what I’ll have going on for the rest of the year. In the meantime, I’m particularly excited about today’s convertorobot, Twinferno because he’s a modern update to the Monsterbot, Doublecross. I never had Doublecross as a kid, but when I got back into collecting G1 Transformers sometime around 1999, I picked up a nice example of him off of Ebay and he turned out to be one of my favorite figures. The fact that Hasbro worked him into this newest wave of Titans Return line both surprises and pleases me to no end.

There he is in his package. And yes, he’s another example of a Non-Headmaster G1 character that has been made into a Titan Master. This seems to bother a lot of people, but not me. And can I just say that Twinferno is both one of the cheesiest and most glorious re-names I’ve seen in Transformers in a while. As for his little buddy… Well, as I understand it, Daburu, is an homage to the Takara Beastformer figure White Leo (that’s Battle Beasts to us ‘Muricans). But that’s enough chit-chat about names… Let’s rip this bad boy open and start with his beast mode!

Oh, hell and yes! True to form, Twinferno’s alt mode is a two-headed dragon and it’s almost everything that I look for in my cyber-beast-formers. In fact, my one design gripe with this guy is one that I shared with the original G1 toy is the decision to make the arms and lower legs look organic while the rest of the alt mode is more cyber-creature. To me it always made the toy look like a hodge-podge of ideas. But hey, that’s just my personal hang-up and in the end it wasn’t a bad decision to be faithful to the G1 toy. If anything it gave this guy a strange charm. The largely black and gray deco looks good, especially with the white heads and little bits of red here and there. Another favorite detail of mine is that they made his stubby wings partially transparent. Oh yeah, it’s also worth mentioning that Hasbro sculpted the tiny thumb wheel as a nod to the original toy’s sparking gimmick. So cool!

The heads are excellent and I really dig how the horns are now more obviously part of the head, whereas the old toy molded them into the neck to the point where they were not even all that noticeable. There’s some good articulation in there too, as they can swivel at the body, they’re hinged a little above that, and the jaws on both heads are articulated. All around, I find this guy’s beast mode a lot more fun that Titan Returns Mindwipe, which looked good, but just stood there.

Daburu’s white, black, and gray plastic helps make up for the absence of paint apps. He’s a heck of a lot more colorful than a lot of the other little Titan Masters. On the other hand, with no paint on his head, it’s hard to make out the sculpted eye patch they gave him to pay respect to White Leo. In fact, his face really just looks like a lump of plastic. Nevertheless, how cool is it that Hasbro is spending time making these obscure references? I really enjoy this sort of thing.

Daburu has a few options on where to ride Twinferno. First, there’s a cockpit compartment in the chest. This is similar to what we saw in Mindwipe and I like it a lot. He’s fully enclosed in there and it looks like he’s controlling the beast mode like a mech.

Secondly, the two guns can be combined and placed on Twinferno’s back, offering a gunning station. Both options work really well, but I think this one is my favorite. Now be honest, let’s say your Daburu and you’re going to ride this dragon. Would you lock yourself up in his chest or would you ride into battle on his back with the wind blowing through your… er, eyepatch, guns belching out hot death on the enemy below. This is the only way to go! The guns look fantastic on the back of the dragon, especially when he’s flying. Nothing says bad ass like a robotic two-headed dragon with guns strapped to his back and a little robot lion-man riding him. Add a guitar and some hellfire and the above picture is practically made to be the cover of a Meat Loaf album. Daburu pegs in there pretty good too, so you don’t have to worry about him falling off when you’re swooshing the dragon around the room. Trust me… I’ve tested it!

You also have the option of mounting the guns on Twinferno’s wings. It’s the same amount of firepower, just spread out a little more. I like this, but overall I still prefer the double guns on the back. I suppose it’s a good way to go for when Daburu is riding inside him.

As much as I dig Twinferno’s dragon mode, it’s the robot mode that really shines for me, because it’s such an amazing update to the G1 toy. I mean, this guy looks perfect. The details on the body are so sharp and the colors are gorgeous, with the red and white complimenting the gray and black plastic just beautifully. Toss in some silver and yellow applications and this guy feels like he’s got more paint on him than most of his brothers from the earlier waves.

There are some surprisingly clever bits of engineering to the transformation. The way the dragon arms fold into compartments in the sides of the torso is very cool, as is the way the upper legs of the dragon become the robot modes feet with the lower dragon legs folded into them and functioning as heel spurs.

You can also keep his twin guns mounted on his back for storage in his robot mode. I think he looks pretty good with the barrels rising behind his shoulders. Onslaught, eat your heart out!

Daburu makes for a pretty good head. It’s definitely a decent update to Doublecross, but because it’s mostly molded in that white plastic the details aren’t all that sharp and other than the blue visor it is a bit bland.

Twinferno technically has dragon heads for hands, so I’m not sure he really needs weapons when his hands can both punch and bite foes at the same time. Nonetheless, the guns are designed to peg into the sockets that make up the hinge for the dragons jaws. Herein lies my only real issue with this robot mode. When he’s holding his guns like this, the elbow joints have to be positioned on the sides of the arm, so he can only aim his guns with his arms straight out. It’s not the end of the world, especially since it’s one of the few things things I can find to bitch about. I just love this guy too much.

So yeah… Monsterbots! Who the hell ever could have guessed we’d see updated versions of these guys from Hasbro? Not me, that’s for sure. Doublecross was just one of those quirky late G1 figures that did it for me and I’m absolutely delighted to have Twinferno as his modern version. Is it possible that Grotesque and Repugnus could be on the horizon? Oh, Primus… I hope so! I never found either to be as good a figure as Doublecross, but I’d still love a complete set of the Monsterbots trio.

And now for some administrative stuff! I’m all caught up on my new arrivals DC pile and I’ll be working some crazy hours tomorrow, so there will be no new Feature Friday. I will, however, be back on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with a special two-parter. I’ve also decided that I’m not going to be doing my traditional Favorites/Disappointments Lists this year. I know, I’ve done those like five years in a row, but I honestly don’t have enough stuff this year to bitch about, and that’s a good thing. I may just do a one-off retrospective on some of my favorite things this year. I may do a more laid back Ups & Downs of 2016 Feature. Then again, I may just stick to regular content as usual next week, as I’ve got a lot of stuff stacking up to be looked at.

That’s it for now… If you’re doing last minute shopping, be safe and I’ll see y’all on Christmas Eve!

Dec 20 2016

Star Wars Black (Rogue One): Scarif Stormtrooper by Hasbro

After a weekend of avoiding all of humanity for fear of spoilers, I finally got to see Rogue One yesterday morning and that evening, I got all the gushing out of my system with a bonus feature. But even a day after seeing the movie, all I wanted to do was play with more Rogue One toys. Lucky for me a couple of Scarif Stormtroopers showed up at my door just a few days before and were waiting to be opened.

Damn these trooper exclusives! First it was the TRU getting the Hovertank Pilot and now it’s Walmart getting the Scarif Stormtrooper. Why make a troop builder an exclusive and the Squad Leader a wide release? It made a whole lot more sense when they made the Snowtrooper Sergeant from The Force Awakens an exclusive and the regular a wide release. In this case, however, I was lucky enough to pick up a couple of these from Wally World’s Website and didn’t have to pay scalpers on the wretched hive of scum and villainy known as Ebay. Anyway, I was hoping to get the Squad Leader by now so I could look at the two together, but as luck would have it I’m still hunting him. I’ve got nothing to say about the box, other than these figures are not numbered because they are exclusives.

Damn, I love the look of these guys! But, I’ll confess I didn’t even realize that this armor shares so much with the Hovertank Pilot until toy blogger extraordinaire, Carnitas Fever, pointed out in the comments. Yeah, I’m pretty terrible at noticing details like that, which is probably why Hasbro can get away with selling me so many repaints. Nonetheless, the torso, arms, legs is the same mold used for the pilots with some variations in paint. It’s movie accurate, and it doesn’t make me enjoy these any less, but it’s still worth pointing out. Not to mention the fact that this was an excellent sculpt to begin with. You still get some nice ribbed textures in the bodysuit, beautiful contours in the chest armor, and some sharp details in the leg armor.

In terms of sculpting, the biggest differences come in the belt, which is not only completely different, but also features some hip plates, as well as a magazine pouch slung low and off toward the right hip. These are all cool additions that look great, but they do inhibit the hip articulation a bit, which is unfortunate.

Of course, these troopers also get a completely different helmet. The extra armor on this helmet’s forehead (blast shield?) is similar, but the down-swept cheek plates are a lot more prominent on this guy. The visor and mouth piece are very reminiscent of the Imperial Scout Troopers. I’m not sure how all these differences specializes them to patrol the beaches, but it’s definitely a cool look and let’s be honest, that’s what’s important.

Like the Hovertank Pilot, the armor here is weathered but much more, and that’s another thing I love about these guys. They look like they’ve been in the thick of battle. There’s mud and grime present and the armor itself is yellowed. It’s a great contrast to the pristine white armor of the regular Stormtroopers. You also get red and yellow paintwork on the right upper arm, almost like an armband, and a white stripe on the left shoulders. I’m guessing these are regimental markings. If I had a copy of the Visual Dictionary, I probably wouldn’t have to guess.

Because the body is essentially the same as the Hovertank Pilot, the articulation here is identical. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, with swivels in the thighs and double hinges in the knees. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist and a ball joint just under the chest. His neck has both a ball joint and a hinge.

The Scarif Troopers come with their trusty E-11 Blasters. They’re very nice sculpts and they even feature some silver dry brushing to make it look like the finish is worn. My only complaint here is that he doesn’t have a holster or any way to clip it onto his belt or leg.

I found so much to love in Rogue One, but among my favorite things was getting to see the Imperial Forces in action once again. In fact, I love how the film handled it. They didn’t replace my beloved Stormtroopers, but rather just augmented their forces with some brand new types of soldiers for me to buy action figures of. The Scarif armor is definitely my favorite of all the new Troop armor on display in this flick and after drooling over the design for a while, it was great to finally see them in action on the big screen.

Dec 19 2016

Star Wars Titanium Series (Rogue One): Imperial Cargo Shuttle by Hasbro

I just got back from seeing Rogue One and I really wanted to talk about it. But FFZ is a toy blog and not a movie blog, so I needed a thinly veiled excuse to discuss it. One quick trip to Target on the way home netted me exactly what I was looking for. The Titanium Series Imperial Cargo Shuttle, so let’s talk about this cool little ship and not in any way use this Feature as a means to interject some random thoughts about the movie!

The ship comes in a little window box that closely matches the packaging used for the Star Wars Black 6-inch series and includes some schematic-style line drawings of the ship. The side panel also denotes that this is #31 in the series…. holy crap, there have been 31 of these ships released??? The packaging is collector friendly and fairly attractive, although mine looks like it was beat to hell in the stockroom or kicked around the floor by kids. Honestly, I think going with a window box for these feels a little pretentious on Hasbro’s parts and I prefer the cards and bubbles that Mattel uses for their Hot Wheels ships.

So, how about that Rogue One, eh? I had mixed expectations going in. On the one hand the trailers have gotten me pumped more and more with each new glimpse. On the other hand, I’ve read some tempered reactions to it. Some people were saying it was too dry and didn’t feel like Star Wars. Now, I will freely admit that it lacked a little of the heart and soul of The Force Awakens, but I didn’t find it dry at all, and indeed I felt it to be extremely Star Wars-y. In fact, I thought it felt more like Star Wars to me than anything we’ve had since The Original Trilogy. I loved The Force Awakens, but in tone that movie felt more like Return of the Jedi. It tackled some heavy themes, had some dire scenes, but it was also rather jokey and lighthearted at times. But that was appropriate, since it was a sequel to ROTJ.

Rogue One felt more like A New Hope to me, which is good seeing as how it leads directly up to that film. It had that grittier feel and everything from the sets and the ships and the tech all looked seamless to me. It delivered some amazing battles between the Rebellion and the Empire, which, Battle of Hoth not withstanding, is something that I’ve always wanted to see more of in a series called Star Wars. It was great to see the Imperial Forces in action and there was a lovely variety to the engagements. It also felt pretty damn epic, spanning a lot more locations than I had expected. What’s that? Oh, right… the toy review!

Imperial Cargo Shuttle SW-0608 is arguably one of the most important ships in the Star Wars universe, as it’s used to ferry the team of Rebel commandos to steal the plans for the infamous Death Star. It’s got some similarities to the Imperial Lambda Class Shuttle design, with the hull elongated, the main dorsal fin removed, and an extra set of articulated wings.

One of the coolest things about Rogue One was that it answers that age old gripe about why the hell the Death Star would have such a stupid design flaw. Alas, I can’t talk about that any more without going into spoiler territory. As much as I was anticipating this movie, I thought the story itself would be the least interesting thing about it, but there were some genuinely cool little twists and turns that kept me interested, even though I had an idea in my head about how it would play out and naturally what the outcome would be. Whoops… back to the review…

As some of you may know, I’ve been going with Mattel’s Hot Wheels line for my tiny Star Wars ships, so this is my first foray into Hasbro’s Titaniums, or at least since the line came back. At heart this feels a lot like the Hot Wheels line. The hull is made of die-cast metal and the wings are plastic. There’s a decent amount of detail to the sculpt, mostly in the form of panel lines. You get some different shades of gray to the paneling and there’s a little weathering as well.

I’ve read a couple reviews that accused the Rogue One of not having memorable characters. I’d take issue with that. None of these characters had the same instant appeal to me as Rey, Finn or my man-crush Poe, but I did find that the movie did a fine job of fleshing out a fair number of them. I really liked Director Krennic. He was a lot more developed than I expected him to be. I thought Jyn and her father were well done also. On the flip side, I would have liked to know a little more about Cassian Andor. I liked him a lot, but I felt they could have explored his backstory a bit more. Let’s check back in on the review…

The wings on the shuttle are articulated. I’ve come to expect that from the Hot Wheels line as well, but here, Hasbro goes that little extra inch and gives the ship a couple more bells and whistles. You get an opening boarding ramp under the cockpit and four teeny tiny sets of landing gear. I actually had to dig each one out with a razor blade because they’re so damn tiny. Impressive!

Some of the more deliberate call backs to the other movies felt forced. The person Jyn bumped into on Jedha was potentially cringe-worthy, but in the end, I found them to be fun and didn’t mind them. In fact, the only thing that put me off a little was how different Vader sounded. That really took me out of those scenes. I appreciate that Jones is a lot older now, but I’m pretty sure I’ve heard him portrayed by other actors in games where he sounded more like Vader than he did here. Considering some of the digital lengths they went to bring back other characters, it seems like they could have cleaned up Vader’s voice a bit and had it sound more like it used to.

Very minor gripes aside, I came out of Rogue One pretty pumped to see it again. I thought it was a great and unexpectedly epic piece of work. It was definitely a different direction from the regular Saga, but at the same time it felt like pure, distilled and concentrated Star Wars to me and I loved it for that. Where The Force Awakens felt very small and compact, this one was a far more expansive trip through the Star Wars Universe. I can see myself going back a few times before it leaves the theaters and this is one movie that I already can’t wait to own on Blu-Ray.

As for my little Imperial Shuttle… It may not be the most exciting ship design around. In fact, it really does feel like a computer model that was kit-bashed for an Expanded Universe video game. But, after seeing the movie, I found that I really wanted a representation of this intrepid little ship in my collection and this seemed to be the only way to go. I’m somewhat impressed with my first Titanium purchase and I might even pick up a few more of these to compare them with my growing Hot Wheels fleet. At the very least, I’m happy to see that the two lines go fairly well together.

Dec 19 2016

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): The Enchantress by Hasbro

While Doctor Strange has been in theaters for a little while now, this wave of Legends is still topical for me, as I just got around to seeing the film for the first time a few weeks ago. I don’t want to turn my blog of toy ranting into a blog of movie ranting, but I’ll just say that I liked Doctor Strange, but I did not love it. It was certainly enjoyable and I think they did a pretty good job with the character, but it was probably my least favorite MCU release so far. As negative as that may sound, it’s worth noting that I’ve loved them all, so taking last place in this case is nothing to be ashamed of. With that having been said, I’m kicking off this wave with the figure in the assortment that I identify the least with Doctor Strange… The Enchantress!

Enchantress is one of the “Mystic Rivals,” sharing her slot in this wave with Nico Minoru. As a result, her name does not appear on the front of the package, only the back. There’s no actual Doctor Strange branding on this package, but you get the same orange colored side panels, which feature some really nice character art of both Nico and The Enchantress, one on each side. As always, these window boxes are collector friendly, but I’m about to shred this thing to pieces and pitch the remnants.

Behold! The Enchantress! This lovely lady uses the exact same body as The Scarlet Witch, back in the Allfather Wave, but it totally works and so I won’t hold that against her. I will, however, hold anything else against her, if she’s up for it, because she’s quite the knock out. The bulk of the outfit is achieved through paint. You get black leggings that end in high-heeled boots. Her rather iconic ring patterns are painted on the fronts of her legs in metallic green. Her painted top is dark green and her painted arm bracers are metallic green to match those leg rings. The paint on this figure is very sharp and clean and the colors look great.

The newly sculpted piece for her outfit consists of a soft plastic green skirt with a gold painted belt. The skirt is designed so as not to hamper her hip articulation. Her hands are the same ones used for Scarlet Witch as well, giving her those wonderful spell-slinging fingers.

I really dig the portrait here. The paint work on her lips, eyes, mascara, and eye brows is all nice and clean. She has a wonderfully slight smirk on her lips, which gives her a little extra personality. Her tiara is sculpted onto her hair, and the hair does its best to not inhibit the neck articulation too badly. My figure does have a weird scar above her chest that looks like came out of the molding process. It’s not a big deal, but worth mentioning. I thin it looks a bit like a battle scar.

Since they share the same body, the articulation here is identical to Scarlet Witch, but I looked at her a long time ago, so I’ll do the rundown again. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels in the thighs. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint just below the chest and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. The hinges are all strong and tight and she’s surprisingly easy to stand, even with those heels.

Enchantress comes with the same magic effect parts we saw with Scarlet Witch. Actually, we’ve seen these several times since as well. They seem to be Hasbro’s favorite accessory, based solely on how many times they’ve recycled them. This time they’re cast in a wonderful neon green plastic, which practically glows under a good light source.

I was absolutely thrilled when Hasbro revealed Enchantress would be in this wave, not only because I love the character, but because for a brief time it looked like she would be a limited release. She was originally included as part of the 2016 SDCC Exclusive Marvel Legends boxed set and that made me very angry collector. While I was pretty confident she’d eventually see a retail release, they don’t usually follow too soon after the exclusives. Fortunately, Hasbro showed pity on us fans who don’t like hunting exclusives, or paying through the nose for them, and the lovely Enchantress got a wide release after all. She was definitely one of my most anticipated figures in this wave and I think she turned out great.

Dec 15 2016

Transformers Titans Return: Firedrive and Hot Rod by Hasbro

It’s time to start digging into a brand new wave of Titans Return Deluxes and I couldn’t be more excited! I fished around in my new box of convertobot goodness, pulled out a random figure to start with and I wound up with Hot Rod. I’m cool with that, since my Classics Hot Rod has been showing his age and itching for a replacement for a little while now. Will this be the figure to do that? Let’s find out!

Here’s the packaging and there isn’t much new to say about it. Hot Rod is another one of those cases where Hasbro has to toss the word Autobot in front of the name, probably because of copyright issues. As for Firedrive, Hasbro no doubt derived that name from Firebolt, the name of G1 Hot Rod’s Targetmaster, since he was never a Headmaster. The Headmasterfication (it’s a word that I just made up) of non-Headmaster G1 characters seems to be pissing off a number of Transformers fans, but it doesn’t bother me at all. Let’s start off with the vehicle mode, but first, I’ve got to cut a dozen of these damn plastic retaining straps.

Oh man, I’m in love! In keeping with his G1 namesake, Hot Rod’s alt mode is a futuristic red sports car with a big yellow spoiler on the back. He’s wide with a low profile, banks of exhaust pipes on both sides, an exposed engine block on the hood and a blue canopy. I absolutely adore the styling and the colors on this car. It’s both dead sexy and instantly recognizable as Hot Rod. The red plastic is nice and bright and the yellow and orange paint operations on the hood really drive the homage home, if you’ll pardon the expression. This is one sleek ride.

Firedrive is a great sculpt, but as has been the case, Hasbro stopped painting these tiny fellas and it really hurts what could have been a beautiful little figure because he’s just all gray and kind of bland. Naturally, Hot Rod’s canopy opens up so that Firedrive can sit in the driver’s compartment. I just wish Firedrive and the cockpit weren’t the same color plastic, because when I seat him in there, he just sort of blends in with the rest of the gray plastic. Unfortunately, that’s been an issue with a lot of these figures.

You have a couple options for Hot Rod’s rifles. My preferred use is to plug them into the sockets just behind the front wheels.

But, you can also connect the two together and form a gunning station that plugs into the engine. It looks ridiculous, but I kind of dig it!

The transformation is very intuitive and reminds me a bit of some of the engineering used for Cybertron Hot Shot and Excellion only with a lot more sophistication. Whatever the case, the result is an absolutely gorgeous robot mode that hits all the points I was looking for in a modern Hot Rod figure. The sculpt is solid enough, but it’s the colors that really sell this figure. All that beautiful red plastic is now met with some equally brilliant orange. You get some gray plastic accents and a little yellow and silver paintwork to spice things up. In terms of coloring alone, Hot Rod is easily one of the most dynamic looking figures in the TR Deluxe line. Sure, the spoiler could have sat a little higher on his back, but when everything else is so good, I’m not going to nitpick the little things.

From the back, Hot Rod is a lot boxier, but he’s also very clean. His rear wheels and exhaust pipes fold up in the back to fill out his lower legs and you can see the front parts of those exhaust pipes form his arm guns. I think he could have used a bit more in the way of heel spurs, as he can sometimes topple backwards when put in certain poses, but again, this is me nitpicking what is a really great figure.

The head sculpt is right on point as well. His face is painted a very pale gray or off-white, with blue eyes, and his “helmet” is comprised of the same bright red plastic. Here you can get a better look at the silver engine block in his chest as well as those sexy flames and he has a crisp Autobot emblem stamped just below the engine.

Hot Rod’s guns can be held in either or both hands and he looks damn good wielding them. I like how the tabs that lock them into the engine block look like side-mounted ammo magazines.

Titans Return has been impressing the hell out of me since the beginning and if Hot Rod here is any indication, Wave 3 should be continuing that trend quite nicely. I love just about everything about this figure I’ll most definitely be retiring my Classics Hot Rod in favor of this shiny new bot. Between this line and Combiner Wars, I haven’t been this excited about Transformers in a while, which probably explains why my Third-Party purchases have all but dried up. And I’m lot happier spending $15 on a great figure like this, than having to go $60-100 for someone else’s unofficial take. My only hope is that Hasbro keeps it up and doesn’t kill this line in favor of the latest Michael Bay atrocity.

Dec 13 2016

Star Wars Black (The Force Awakens): C-3PO by Hasbro

So far, I’ve been OK with the bizarre relationship that Hasbro and Walgreens have forged over exclusives. In fact, most of them have been figures that I could live without so I haven’t really been hunting many of them. The one exception would be Marvel Legends Namor, and I was able to get him off the website easy-peasy. But now all bets are off. Because Original Trilogy C-3PO is a Walgreens Exclusive while the red-armed version from The Force Awakens is the wide release. And the very fact that I’m taking a look at TFA 3PO today means that I’m still hunting the exclusive one and stuck with the consolation prize. Not cool, Hasbro. Not cool.

3PO comes in what is now the standard Black Series window box, with the figure’s number (in this case #29) on the side panel. These packages aren’t branded specifically to any movie, but this version is called “Resistance Base” 3PO and the blurb on the back calls out his continued service to General Leia. All that and… oh, yeah the red arm is all you get to designate that he’s from Episode 7. I have to say, I was pretty impressed with this figure just seeing him in the box, so I’m anxious to get him out and see if that impression holds.

The first thing I have to say is that I really dig the gold finish on him. 3PO’s coloring is hard to get right. Do you go clean? Do you go dirty? Do you vac-metal him? Here we have a relatively clean finish, but somewhere between matte and reflective gold. It’s kind of a satin look. I think he was a lot more shiny in TFA, but even with that having been said, I really like the gold paint Hasbro used here. It looks rich and metallic and it’s just beautiful. And best of all, you don’t have to worry about him chipping or scratching. Indeed, the coloring here reminds me a lot of the paint my dad and I used when we built the MPC 3PO model kit when I was a wee lad.

The sculpt and proportions on this droid look really good as well. I’m sure fanatics who have scrutinized the costumes can point out all the differences, but he hits nearly all the right points for me. If I had one complaint in the sculpt and paint department, it would be the left arm. The sculpt looks a little softer, and I suspect that’s due to the different type of plastic used and the fact that it’s unpainted. I think it also looks a lot more obvious that the left arm is static with no elbow joint and it looks a little weird, but I’ll come back to my outrage over the articulation in a bit.

As a quick interlude… I should stress here that the red arm in TFA didn’t bother me like it did some. It did seem like a long way to go for a quick one-off joke (although I’ll confess that scene did make me laugh), but 3PO wasn’t a major player in the film so I didn’t really care. It makes sense that people would swap out damaged parts on their droids all the time and those parts wouldn’t always match. It’s like seeing a red Camaro drive by with a black bumper waiting to be painted. And, yes I know that Marvel explained the arm in one of their comics. Anyway, I’m certainly not opposed to having a TFA accurate version of 3PO, but not at the cost of being able to easily find the regular one.

Like the coloring, 3PO’s head is also something that can be tricky to get right. Here, I think they did an admirable job. There are still certain angles where it looks better than others, but all in all I’m quite pleased with it. I especially like how they painted the tiny starbursts in the eyes to replicate the lights on the costume. I do wish they had blackened out the inside of his “mouth,” but that’s something that I can do fairly easy with a marker.

3PO’s exposed midriff, for lack of a better term, looks pretty good as well. The underlying covering is sculpted with a ribbed pattern and the wires are all sculpted and painted as well. The paint could be a little neater in some areas, but it works for me.

Alas, the articulation is this figure’s biggest downfall and that’s mainly because he’s completely missing elbow joints. I didn’t know that going in and I could hardly believe it when I got him out of the box. I mean, I was legitimately flummoxed. I’m sure there are all sorts of reasons why Hasbro didn’t do it. Maybe the joints would look weird. Most likely, it was too hard to make it work with the pistons at this scale. But you know what? Hasbro released a 3 3/4-inch 3PO back in 2010 that had elbow joints so why not here? Granted, that one didn’t have the pistons at all, but frankly I would have rather had the articulation. Besides, NECA managed to put working pistons on the legs of their RoboCop figure and he wasn’t much larger than 3PO. All I’m saying is that I was really shocked at the lack of articulation in 3PO’s arms, but the more I played with the figure, the less it bothered me.

So what did we get? The shoulders are ball jointed, and the shoulder cups are separate pieces, which swivel at the shoulder and that’s pretty cool. The wrists are on rotating hinges. The legs feature ball joints at the hips, swivels in the thighs, which are concealed under the plates, and hinges in the knees. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. Yes… we got a 3PO with no elbows but lateral rockers in the ankles. That makes sense! There’s a ball joint inside the chest and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed.

Having had an R2-D2 since the very first wave of the Black Series, it was really odd to have to wait more than 28 figures later to get 3PO. I’m very glad to finally have him, even if it means I’m still searching for the regular version. Yes, the lack of elbow joints is not ideal, especially on a modern collector figure. It’s something that will always stick in my craw when looking at this figure. On the bright side, everything else here is pretty well done and overall I’m still surprisingly satisfied with him. And hey, we can all thank god that Hasbro didn’t decide to give him removable plates as an homage to Episode 1 3PO like they did on the Vintage Collection version.

Dec 8 2016

Transformers Combiner Wars: G2 Aerialbots Box Set by Hasbro, Part 1: Silverbolt and Powerglide

I was expecting to have the third wave of Titans Return Deluxes to start looking at today, but UPS had other plans and they won’t arrive until tomorrow. Not to worry… I’ve been saving the Combiner Wars Generation 2 Aerialbots box set for just this occasion. Hasbro unloaded a bunch of these sets off their website a little while back for the ridiculously low price of $30 shipped. And seeing as how much I loved the G2 Stunticon set, I simply couldn’t resist. My plan is to cover this set just like I did those G2 Stunticons, in four parts, but I’m not going to do it in a straight shot. I’ll just keep coming back to these when I’m hard up for content, so getting through this set is going to take a while. For today, lets kick it off with a look at the packaging, Silverbolt and Powerglide!

The six figures come in an enclosed box with some beautiful landscape-oriented artwork on the front and lots of pictures of what’s inside. Primus knows, the Combiner Wars packages haven’t been my favorite, but this elevates it to a new level. You get a bitchin’ shot of G2 Superion shooting off his knuckle cannons with Cybertron in the backdrop. This feels like something special and it’s aces! On the other hand, unlike the Takara sets, there’s no opening flap or window, which makes it feel a little less premium. Open up the box and the goods are laid out on a clear plastic tray in their separate vehicle modes with their weapons and combiner parts around them. Considering I went the Takara route for the original CW Aerialbots, I like the idea of owning this set to represent Hasbro’s take on the packaging.

Flip the box over and you get this portrait-oriented shot of G2 Superion in all his colorful glory as well as smaller shots of each of the four figures in both robot and alt modes. Fantastic!

And wow, check out Silverbolt! His Concorde alt mode casts off its mostly white G1 body in favor of this blue deco with red accents. The body of the jet has a truly distinctive light metallic blue finish unlike anything I’ve seen before. It’s paired with the high gloss, deeper blue wings and tail fins with red showing up on the tail dorsal fin and in a few other spots. I’m not sure if they actually attempted to match the blue plastic with the blue paint and failed, but I really like the subtle two-tone effect here. Besides the impact of the color change, what strikes me most about this toy is how much work Hasbro put into the repaint. I was expecting something quick and dirty, but what we got shows some true care.

Extra flourishes include the G2 Autobot symbol on the one wing and “5” on the opposite, both framed with a pair of silver triangles. There are also “5’s” printed on the dorsal fin and a white and blue checkered “V” stamped just behind the cockpit area. Finally, you get some high gloss black paint on the engines. It’s a gorgeous repaint of a very solid alt-mode, which brings out the sculpted panel lines in a way that the original white plastic didn’t. Again, the quality of paint here is just superb!

Transformed into his robot mode, Silverbolt trades a lot of that blue real estate for more red, in this case bare red plastic that still has a bit of a glittery, metallic finish. Also thrown into the mix is more black and a little silver on his abdomen. It’s a pretty well balanced deco and it’s topped off with a G2 Autobot emblem stamped proudly on his chest. Obviously, I identify more with the G1 colors and those will always have a place in my heart, but I cannot deny that this is one damn attractive figure!

I particularly love what the colors do for this head sculpt. The face is still silver with a very high quality look to the paint. His “helmet” is now blue, and his eyes are painted a gorgeous shade of red.

You get the same rifle and “shield” combo, which will combine to form Superion’s gun. The rifle is a little too long for Silverbolt and the shield is pretty worthless, but otherwise, I love still love this toy and it looks fantastic in the new G2 colors. Unfortunately, I can’t say I have quite the same enthusiasm for Powerglide, though. I don’t have a lot to say about him, but let’s start with his alt mode.

The original release of this Legends Class figure will go down as one of my favorites in recent years, so I have a lot of love for this mold, even if the alt mode is difficult to hold together. The G2 version is almost a palate swap of the original only here the light tan plastic is replaced with gray. It’s that gray swirly stuff, that I’m not all that fond of, but it’s not too bad in small amounts like on this little guy. That having been said, the deco here isn’t my favorite. I just feel like the smaller amount of red overpowers the silver. I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it either.

The robot mode is more of the same, although I think I prefer the deco in robot mode a little more than in alt mode. You get an extra little bit of paint on his crotch piece and that glorious G2 Autobot emblem stamped on his chest. Unless my Transformers history is off, I don’t recall Powerglide ever getting an official G2 release and I feel like these colors aren’t quite in the spirit of the rest of the G2 Aerialbots. Still, it’s a decent repaint of a cool figure.

When it comes to this Powerglide, I can take him or leave him, but Silverbolt is a pretty great looking toy for what could have been a quick and dirty repaint. I’m extremely impressed with what I’ve seen so far out of this set and I’m looking forward at checking out the limbs in the future. But as I said earlier, that won’t be until next year, because next Thursday I’ll start on the third wave of Titans Return Deluxes, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I get a couple more of the bigger ones for Christmas.

FigureFan Zero

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