Oct 12 2016

Star Wars Black (Rogue One): Captain Cassian Andor (Eadu) by Hasbro

I told you I might be back tonight and here I am with a look at the Star Wars Black 6-inch Cassian Andor, another one of those Rebel Scum from the upcoming Rogue One flick. Alas, I spent the better part of my evening getting liquored up at the corner Pub, so this is going to have to be a quickie.

Here’s a look at the packaging and there’s really nothing new to say about it. It tells us that this version of the character’s outfit is from Eadu, a planet which I presume is more than a little chilly. The short blurb on the back of the box doesn’t really say a lot and I feel like I’m even more in the dark about who this person is than I was with Jyn. We do know that he’s part of Jyn’s mission and that he might have been attached to the unit to try to keep her in check, so there may be a good character dynamic between the two.

So, is there seriously anyone out there who isn’t instantly getting a Hoth Han Solo vibe off of this guy? I’m sure that’s on purpose, because as Lucas once said, Star Wars is like poetry. It rhymes. These new movies seem like they are going to be big on the fan-wanks to the originals and I think we’re seeing more of that here. Then again, sometimes a snow outfit is just a snow outfit. Either way, I think this outfit gave Hasbro a little more to work with than Jyn’s did and they’re getting mighty good at infusing these sculpts with some wonderful detail.

Cassian comes all bundled up in a blue belted parka, which hopefully will look somewhat brown in the film and cause a whole new clothing color controversy. You get the ribbed stripes on the sleeve, which seems to be big in the Rebellion fashion world. There’s also some nice texturing on the gloves and belt. His belt has various sculpted pouches and pieces of equipment, and from the back you can get a good look at the fur-lined hood that rests behind his head. The paint here is pretty solid on the costume and includes silver paint on the buckles and fixtures of his belt and gear, as well as his boots.

The belt also features a working holster for his blaster pistol, which is always a huge plus in my book.

The figure comes with a hat and goggles that’s very reminiscent of what we saw Rebel troops and officers wearing on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. And yes, it is removable.

Like Jyn, we have another ambiguous head sculpt here. Taken on its own, it isn’t bad, but does it really look like the actor, Diego Luna? Nah, not really. There just isn’t enough detail in the sculpt and the paint isn’t really up to the task either. Once again, this head looks like it would have been more acceptable on a smaller scaled figure. It’s a shame, but not enough to ruin the figure for me thanks to my diminished expectations of this line.

The articulation here is pretty much identical to what we saw with Jyn. And yes, that means that Cassian is lacking swivels in the biceps. I am, however, pleased that they still worked a ball joint into his chest, despite the puffy jacket sculpt. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in the thighs, but not the boots. The knees are double hinged, and the ankles feature both hinges and lateral rockers. The neck is both hinged and ball jointed.

Captain Andor comes with two weapons. You get the blaster pistol, which fits into his holster and you get a larger weapon that looks a lot like the Rebel Blasters from The Original Trilogy.

I feel like I know next to nothing about Captain Andor and that’s certainly tempering my excitement for this figure. On the other hand, it is a really well done figure, once I get past the fact that there’s very little resemblance in the likeness. Hasbro put a lot of work into the detail in the outfit and gear and he looks really good standing beside Jyn or even mingling with the Hoth versions of Han and Luke. If nothing else, he’ll be a welcome addition to my Hoth rebels until I finally get to see the movie and learn what he’s all about.

On another note, I’ve decided to scrap the usual scheduled features for the remainder of the week and just go full on Star Wars. Transformers Thursday, DC Friday, and Anime Saturday will all return next week as normal. In the meantime, I’m going to spend the next three days wrapping up my look at the 6-inch Black Rogue One figures and whatever else I can squeeze in!

Oct 12 2016

Star Wars Black (Rogue One): Sergeant Jyn Erso (Jedha) by Hasbro

It’s been over a week since Force Friday, a night where I was happily willing to forgo late night shopping in favor of my comfy chair, a tall Jameson, and a couple clicks on the Internet to get my figures shipped to me. Sure, it meant I wasn’t the first kid on the block to get the figures, but I’m perfectly fine with that. The distribution this time around seems a lot better, and I was able to pick up almost all the initial assortments of 6-inch and 3 3/4-inch figures from Rogue One, with the one exception being TRU’s Exclusive Hovertank Pilot. Today I’m checking out Jyn Erso and there’s a pretty good chance I’ll be back later tonight to look at Captain Cassian Andor.

There isn’t much new I can say about the packaging. It’s the same black and red style window box that we saw with The Force Awakens. You get some illustrated character art on the front and the right panel has the figure’s name and number. The window offers a great look at the figure inside and everything is collector friendly. You also get little blurbs on the back panels about each character, but this is still a case where a lot about these characters remains a mystery. In this case, we’re also dealing with versions of the characters tied to specific locations in the movie, this one being from the planet Jedha. It’s one of the two outfits we see Jyn wearing in the trailer, and all I can say is bring on the Imperial uniform Jyn!

And what’s this? Another female lead protagonist in a Star Wars film? How dare they!!! Of course, I’m kidding. I’m not very familiar with Felicity Jones, outside a one off appearance she had in Doctor Who, but she seems like she’s going to be a fine addition to the Star Wars Universe. She looks small and scrappy and capable, in other words the perfect personification of the Rebel Alliance.

Jyn’s outfit is simple, but a suitably Star Wars-y bit of fashion that also gives her a little bit of a smuggler flavor from her finger-less gloves right down to her boots. She has an olive green jacket, done up in the usual sculpted vest-style with the arms sculpted to look like sleeves and she’s wearing a smaller sculpted brown vest over the jacket. I like the detail work on the vest and the sculpted sleeves for the jacket feature both sculpt and paint for the striping. You also get some nice texturing on the pants. The back of the vest has a quilted look and Jyn is wearing a low slung pistol belt is certainly reminiscent of a certain scoundrel I know. The proportions here seem pretty good for the actress and all in all I’d say from the neck down this is one great looking figure.

I am, however, really torn on the portrait here. Does it look like Felicity Jones? Ehhhhhh… maybe? Maybe an animated version of her? Truth be told, there isn’t really enough detail in this sculpt to make it work as an accurate likeness. This head feels like it would be right at home on a 3 3/4-inch figure and certainly passable in that scale. And yet I don’t hate the head sculpt. It’s cute like the actress, and the paint is pretty clean, it’s just the likeness that isn’t there. With just the head to go on, I wouldn’t know who it was supposed to be, but in the context of the outfit, yeah it works alright for me. I guess my expectations have been tempered by the hit-and-miss nature of this line.

Jyn comes out of the package with a head-wrap, which obviously can be removed, since I started this review without it. It fits the figure pretty well and it can be removed without popping the head. In fact, I’m not sure whether the head can be popped off at all. My figure’s head is on there pretty good. It’s cool that they included this piece of the costume, but I’m not a big fan of the way it looks on the figure and I feel it’s destined to get pitched into The Tote of Forgotten Accessories, or perhaps re-purposed for another figure.

Articulation here is fairly solid. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed, have double hinged knees, and swivels in the thighs and again at the boots. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint in the torso and the neck has both a ball joint and a hinge. The lack of swivels in the biceps is a little vexing. I would have rather had swivels there then at the boots. Why, Hasbro? Why don’t you like giving bicep swivels to the ladies? The knees on my figure are a little mushy, but overall not too bad.

Besides the head-wrap, Jyn comes with a blaster pistol. It’s a decent sculpt and actually features some silver paint. It’s so nice to see Hasbro doing paint operations on their 6-inch scale guns for a change. The pistol fits perfectly into the hip holster and there’s a strap that pegs in to hold in place. It’s a great little gun, but I’ll likely be robbing one of my Stormies and giving her an E-11 Blaster.

I was a little apprehensive about getting this figure in hand, as she’s received some mixed reviews among collectors. Now that she’s in hand, I’m actually surprised how much I like her. Yes, like a lot of this Black Series, she feels more like a blown up 3 3/4-inch figure than a twenty dollar 6-inch collectors figure, but that seems to be par for the course. Truth be told, I’ve had her on my desk for a couple days now and I find myself having a lot of fun with her battling it out against Imperial thugs. And in perfect marketing form, this is making me even more excited to see this movie.

Oct 10 2016

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

Welcome back, folks, to another Marvel Monday Double Feature as I take a quick look at the Scott Lang Ant Man/Giant Man Build-A-Figure from Marvel Legends. I was fortunate enough to avoid spoilers going in to Civil War, so when Lang went big during the Airport Battle, I was beside myself with delight. If Spider-Man was my favorite new addition to the MCU for this film, than seeing Lang assume the role of Giant Man, even if only briefly, was easily a close second. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to be getting a Legends scale release.

In terms of assembly, this figure is as basic as these BAFs can get, with six parts to build him. That’s one torso, two legs, two arms, and a head. And unlike the X-Men Wave, this was one of those assortments where you did have to buy all the figures to make this work. Putting this guy together is pretty easy.

And once completed, this figure looks great. A quick glance at the suit and it looks pretty similar to the one from the Ant Man film, but under closer scrutiny it’s clear that there are a lot of changes here. Overall, it’s a sleeker and simpler design and this figure represents the changes pretty well, especially if you stand him next to the Legends figure from the original film. While changes in the suit allow for more merchandising (ie Toys!) it also makes sense in the context of the film, as the first suit was a lot older and thus more primitive looking. I still dig this suit design a lot, but I definitely prefer the original over this one.

Details include sculpted seam lines in the suit and all those red panels are textured. There’s also some silver piping and there are panel lines in most of the metal plates, like the belt, collar, and arm pieces. The paint on this figure is also very good. The bulk of the coloring comes from the matte black buck, but the red and silver are vibrant and really contrast with the black nicely.

Again, the helmeted head here is a lot simpler in design than the original suit. The mandibles and the mouth piece are more streamlined and the silver finish on the helmet looks like brushed steel. I also really dig the bright blue paint apps on the helmet and shoulder pieces. The best thing about the head, however, are the sculpted and painted eyes behind the red lenses. Not only does this add a lot of depth and credibility to the head sculpt, but in a well lit area it almost looks like the eyes are illuminated from within. An illusion that is more effective than the LED lights in my beloved Hot Toys Ant Man figure.

The articulation here is about on par with your average Legends figure. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs have rotating hinges in the hips, double hinges in the knees, and swivels in the thighs. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist and an ab crunch hinge in the torso. Finally, the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. The joints on this guy feel great.

Ant Man is not quite twice the size of a regular Legends figure. So, perhaps there is an obvious complaint here over scale, but it’s also a pretty silly one.Yes, Lang is still small compared to how big he was in the fight, but that would have had to be a pretty big figure to make him actually to scale with the 6-inch Legends line. Maybe, Hasbro could have broken him up over two waves and had separate pieces for each leg and arm and two pieces for the torso. It’s not unprecedented and it would have made him a lot bigger, but spreading BAFs over multiple waves is rarely worth the bother. If the Masterworks line was still around, they could have released a bigger figure that way, but then those are designed to be in scale with the 3 3/4-inch figures. In the end, I’m plenty happy with what we got here.

There were some great figures in this wave, and there were some not so great ones. Red Guardian was bungled due to poor QC, and I wasn’t impressed with the Captain America repaint. And yet, the good outweighed the bad, and I’m happy to say that even the less than stellar ones were worth picking up in order to assemble this guy. Yes, I would still have liked a 6-inch scale version of Lang wearing the new suit, but Hasbro seems content with not delivering on complete movie teams these days. It’s easy to complain, but I’d rather just shut up and enjoy what’s become the Golden Age of Marvel 6-inch figures.

Next Monday I’m going to detour to take a look at a statue and when I come back to Legends, I’ll be running through the long overdue Rhino Wave so that I can get into some Doctor Strange.

Remember that scene in that really old movie?

The one where they’re on the snow planet?

Oct 10 2016

Marvel Legends (Giant Man Wave): Black Panther by Hasbro

Thanks to a little doubling up along the way, I’m already at the final boxed figure in the Marvel Legends Giant Man Wave. And that’s a good thing, because I still have the entire Rhino Wave to look at from forever ago, and the Doctor Strange Wave is starting to trickle in. What’s that? Abomination Wave? Dammit! I’m still so far behind. Well, let’s wrap up this one with a look at a very highly anticipated figure… Black Panther!

Here he is in package, a sight that I never got to see out in the wild. T’Challa was in hot demand and for a while the only way to get him seemed to be going the online route and pay out the ass for him. Lucky for me things calmed down after a short while and I was able to find him online at regular retail price. Black Panther comes with an alternate head and the last piece I needed to build my Giant Man figure.

Freed of his cardboard and plastic prison, Black Panther looks absolutely amazing. I know some people who were put off by the hyper-detailed MCU costume, but I actually quite like what they did to his Vibranium suit. It’s a big budget movie, they couldn’t have the guy running around in cat pajamas. It also gave Hasbro a chance to shine by recreating the more complex design in action figure form, and they did a mighty fine job with it. There’s no simple painted buck here, rather every panel line and texture is present and part of the sculpt. Indeed, there’s scarcely any tiny portion of this figure that isn’t adorned with some piece of detail work.

As for paint, the figure obviously gets by mostly with a whole lot of matte black plastic, but you do get some very fine silver paint apps for some of the suit’s accents, as well as the necklace. Yup, I love what they did with the necklace too. It keeps the tribal theme of the classic costume, but recreates it with a high-tech metal look. The hands are drawn up in claws, which works great for all the action poses, and the claws on his fingertips are painted too! And yes, Hasbro is still painting those numbers on the legs to make them as obvious as possible. Thanks, Hasbro!

As already noted, you get two heads with the figure, one masked and one unmasked. The masked one looks great and features more of that intricate sculpted detailing along with some more silver paint. And once again, the silver paint apps here are sharp and on point. Beautiful! I should also note that T’Challa’s cat ears are pretty sharp and pointy. They very nearly got me when I was pressing down to pop this head back on.

The unmasked head is also a very welcome treat, especially since T’Challa spent a good deal of Civil War unmasked. I think you could argue for or against whether this likeness is passable for Chadwick Boseman. I’ll concede that it’s a little soft, but I happen to think it’s pretty good for this scale. Either way, I will complement Hasbro on a solid sculpt and some very clean paint apps.

Articulation is extra important for this figure since Black Panther is quite the agile kitty. Legends was never quite going to capture the level needed for this guy to really shine, we’ll leave that for Figma or Figuarts, but what’s here is still pretty good. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, the elbows are double hinged, and there are swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged in the knees, and have swivels in the thighs. The ankles have hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch hinge in the torso, and the neck is both ball jointed and hinged. What’s more the joints on this guy feel great.

Black Panther could have been an easy figure for Hasbro to half-ass, had they chosen to leave out a lot of the finer details in the suit, but I’m happy to say they gave it their all with this release. He also comes pretty close to being my favorite of the wave. In fact, the jury is still out on whether I’d go with T’Challa, Nuke, or Fury as my top figure here, but it doesn’t matter, all three are excellent. I’m also happy to be adding another Civil War figure to my Legends shelf. With Scarlet Witch coming up, I’d really just like to see an MCU Vision to finish things off.

And just so that I can put this wave to bed, come on back later tonight and I’ll have a look at the Giant Man Build-A-Figure!

Oct 6 2016

Transformers: Titans Return Xort & Highbrow by Hasbro

Ugh, I’ve got too many good things ending this week. Yesterday was my last Mythic Legions feature for a while and today I’m wrapping up the second wave of Titans Return Deluxe figures. My last figure for this round is Highbrow and his little head buddy Gort… er, I mean Xort. Damn you, Hasbro, protect your trademarks!

Here’s the gratuitous packaged shot and I have nothing new to add. I don’t particularly love these card designs, but the bubble does show off the figure quite nicely, and to be honest, these figures tend to speak for themselves. They could be hanging on the pegs in used Ziploc bags with sandwich crumbs in them and I’d still be happy to buy them. Highbrow is packaged in his robot form, but as you probably already guessed, I’m starting with the alt mode. But first, I have to deal with all these goddamn plastic tethers.

True to his G1 namesake, Highbrow is a dual rotor attack chopper. I’ve never been a big fan of this design, mainly because the original toy didn’t look like it could get off the ground, and the aerodynamic feasibility of this one also leaves me in doubt. Now, that having been said, it’s a toy, so I’m willing to suspend a little belief and enjoy it for what it is, and truth be told there’s a lot to dig about this chopper.

The three blades on the original toy have been reduced to just two and the whole aircraft has been made a lot more sleeker. The biggest improvements are in the cockpit and nose section, which have been streamlined for a sexier look. The tinted red canopy has a painted and sculpted framework that looks absolutely fantastic and the nose features a single chin gun. I’m a little bummed out that the wings no longer end in downward angles, like the G1 toy did. I think that would have made it look a little more aggressive, but then it also would have impacted the robot mode, so I’m OK with the change.

The colors on this chopper are both beautiful and evocative of the original toy. You get a lot of snappy blue plastic and a good deal of pale gray. Additional paint apps include some red stripes, some charcoal colored intakes on the sides below the cockpit, and more charcoal paint on the rear stabilizer fan rotor. There’s also a lovely Autobot emblem stamped on the back. This toy is proof positive that you don’t need a lot of those ‘spensive paint operations to make the coloring look good.

Xort is your typical little head robot. I think I’ve introduced them all that way, but truth be told there isn’t a lot new to say about these guys. They all have that same basic articulation, with the legs fused together and points at the knees, hips, shoulders and neck. While Hasbro has nixed the paint apps for all the other Nebulons (are we still calling them that?) in this wave, Xort here held on to his, so you get a little teeny bit of silver paint on his visor. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it makes all the difference to me.

Highbrow’s canopy is hinged at the front and opens to reveal a cockpit for Xort to sit in. It’s not terribly roomy, but he does fit in there with enough clearance to close the canopy without any issues. There’s also a hinged landing gear under the cockpit, but it’s not really necessary if you have the wing guns attached.

Wing guns, you say? Yes, you also get a pair of guns that mount under the wings.

These can also be mounted on each side of the cockpit, which looks kind of cool. God help me, I want to buy another so I can load him up for quad damage. Use all the gun ports!!!

The guns can also be combined to form an outrigger gun for one of the little fellas to operate, and wow does this look like a bad idea. Not only does Xort look really uncomfortable, it looks downright dangerous. But I do appreciate Hasbro’s desire to offer a lot of play value to these toys and if I were a kid, I’d probably be fine with this, no matter how goofy it looks. Let’s transform Highbrow and check out his bot mode!

Oh my, I think I’m in love! Transforming Highbrow is very simple and intuitive. You just fold his legs out from his tail section and his arms fold out from his side pontoons and wings. The cockpit section folds back to form a backpack, the chest panel pulls out a bit, and you slap on the noggin. It may be a simple conversion, but the results are absolutely fantastic. You get some nice sculpted panel lines and detail and the deco stays more or less the same here as in chopper mode, with just a few extra paint apps showing on the upper arms.

Granted, he’s not quite so attractive in the back, but there’s nothing too bad here. The cockpit backpack stays in place and isn’t at all cumbersome. It does make him back heavy, but the heel spurs do their job to keep him upright. The rotor blades on the back of his arms are left loose to spin, but they don’t pose much of an annoyance when playing with him. The only shame here is that the transformation doesn’t require a twist in the middle, because that leaves him with no waist swivel in robot mode. On the other hand, it does give me at least one thing negative to say about this figure, because I got nothing else to gripe about.

Xort makes for an excellent head with a clean and classic Autobot portrait. I really like the gray they used for the face and the visor looks great against the charcoal colored “helmet.” This shot shows off those lovely paint apps in the upper arms, and there’s a sharp Autobot emblem printed on the chest plate which housed the tech specs in the original G1 toy. Funny enough, I get something of a G1 Topspin vibe off of this guy, and that’s not a bad thing. Despite the gimmick, I really loved the aesthetics of the G1 Jumpstarters in robot mode. I felt that they were pretty close to the overall look of the Sunbow animated aesthetic.

Of course, Highbrow’s chopper guns can be used as twin rifles when he’s in robot mode, and boy does he look like he’s ready to kick some can.

Highbrow is a triumph in simple and elegant Deluxe Transformer design and proves that when Hasbro is on its game, we don’t always need to look to high priced third party products to deliver the characters we want. He looks amazing in both modes, and he’s a fun toy to play around with. I’d argue he’s about as perfect an update to the G1 toy as you can get, while still keeping things simple and fun and at the Deluxe price point. Hell, I could apply that last statement to nearly all the Deluxe figures in Titans Return so far. I’d say even the weakest figure in this line (for me that would be Skullsmasher) is still a totally solid release and I can’t wait the next wave to start shipping. This is probably my favorite two waves of Deluxe Transformers to come out since I can remember.

Oct 3 2016

Marvel Legends (Giant Man Wave): Nuke by Hasbro

Welcome back to the second half of today’s Marvel Monday! If you joined me this morning than you know I was less than impressed with Hasbro’s treatment of Red Guardian. Hopefully, we can still end this day on a high note as I check out Nuke!

Nuke’s package is pretty much identical to what we’ve been seeing in this wave with some bitchin character art on the side panels. And with two accessories and the Giant Man torso all packed into that tray, this is a rather heavy package. I thought Nuke to be something of an odd choice for the Captain America/Civil War themed wave, although Cap and Nuke have certainly had their dealings. Personally, I love the character, and it was pretty cool to see him getting paid respects in the Netflix Jessica Jones series. Now, which pill gets him out of the package?

Straight out of the box, this is an impressive figure. His torso and arms are a bare buck with a soft plastic vest that fastens on the bottom with a peg. Below the waist, Nuke is packing a set of military issue trousers with pouches strapped to each thigh, worn knee pads, and some serious shit-kickers on his feet.

The attention to detail on the vest is appreciated. Not only is it loaded with texturing and sculpted pouches, but you get some grenades hanging off his chest on the left hand side and a row of shells across the right hand side, both of which are painted. And speaking of paint, the silver buckles and fixtures on all his belts are neatly painted with silver paint and you get a nice wash over the vest and belts to bring out some of the detail in the sculpt. The care put into the paint on this guy is everything we didn’t get on the Red Guardian figure that I looked at this morning.

The back of the vest features more great texturing and a huge sheath for his combat knife. You get more sculpted straps and there’s a brace of pouches running across the back of his belt. This guy is definitely packing some serious gear.

For the portraits, you get two head sculpts. The first is the regular head with the flat top haircut and the American flag tattooed right on his face. Hasbro loves to pack in the personality for its villain and anti-hero head sculpts and Nuke here is no exception. Yeah, he’s a little wall-eyed, but I think that adds to his overall demented look.

The second head features some battle damage, sans hair, and exposes parts of his cybernetic skull. The detail here is phenomenal, and I have to say it’s one of the best portraits I’ve seen come out of Legends in a while. The paint on this noggin is just incredible. It shows what Hasbro is capable of when they’re willing to put in the time and money. I’m guessing a lot of those commodities that would have went into Red Guardian were diverted to complete this little plastic masterpiece.

The articulation holds few surprises for a modern Legends figure. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps and double hinges in the elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in the thighs and tops of the boots, and the knees are double hinged. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. The torso swivels at the waist and has an ab crunch. And finally, you get both a ball joint and hinge in the neck. The joints on this guy are all rock solid. No gummy or frozen joints here!

Nuke comes with two accessories, both of them weapons. First off we have his chunky combat knife that he can stow in the sheath on his back. Yes, it’s cartoonishly big, but I still love it. It has a sort of GI JOE Sigma Six feel to it, and don’t even get started about how much I adored that line. What’s more… paint apps! A little while ago I was bitching about how it feels cheap to be doing weapons in this scale without any paint apps on them. Here we get a black finish on the blade with a silver painted edge and a green grip. It really makes the details stand out and I also dig the knuckle guard a lot.

Next up, we get this crazy looking rifle. And again… paint apps! It’s got a patriotic motif to it with red and blue and silver standing in for the white. It even has a star painted on the stock. Yeah, there’s some paint dribble on mine too, but this thing still looks great and I really appreciate the effort that went into painting it. Hell, a lot more effort went into painting this gun and the knife than the entire Red Guardian figure. Well, except for his shield. I still really dig his shield. Hey, Nuke… want a shield? It’s genuine Soviet surplus!

Last week, I was quick to proclaim comic Nick Fury to be the likely candidate for my favorite figure in this wave, but now I’m not so sure. Yes, Fury is certainly more iconic a character for me, and they did a beautiful job on him. But in terms of sheer craftsmanship and attention to detail, Nuke is a tough figure to beat. Hell, I’d recommend this one as a stand alone figure even to people who don’t normally collect Legends. The figure has tons of personality and he is so much fun to play with. It’s also great to see Hasbro invest so much time and effort in someone who isn’t exactly a top tier character. So, favorite figure in the wave? Well, let’s hold off on declaring a winner until next week when I look at the last packaged figure, Black Panther!

Oct 3 2016

Marvel Legends (Giant Man Wave): Red Guardian by Hasbro

Greetings and a very Good Marvel Monday Morning to you all. I’m doubling down on posts today with a look at two more figures from the Giant Man Wave of Marvel Legends so I can get through the tremendous backlog of these figures. I’ve got a quickie this morning with Red Guardian, and then I’ll be back tonight with a look at Nuke.

Here’s Red Guardian in the package, and yet another example of how Hasbro is willing to play deep when it comes to Legends. He may not be the most recognizable character on the pegs these days, but the Red Guardian moniker is one that reaches far back into Marvel history and is most certainly not a bad choice for a figure. Unfortunately, in this case, it’s just a bad figure.

I get Hasbro’s need to release at least one budget-conscious figure in the wave. Red Guardian is certainly that, as we’re dealing with a quick-and-dirty buck and shield repaint with a new head. Normally, I’m perfectly fine with that, but if you’re going to do it, Hasbro, you should at least put some effort into that new coat of paint and that certainly isn’t the case here. In Soviet Russia, quality controls you!

Yes, the paint here is pretty piss-poor. There’s a red smudge on the star on his chest and scratches all over the star on his back. The white on the buccaneer boots actually looks pretty bright and fresh, but those gauntlets are full of bleed through and just look dirty. The paint on the belt is also pretty rough. It’s a shame because the red used for the rest of the costume is quite nice and even includes some decent shading.

The head sculpt would be OK, if it wasn’t rife with mold flashing. This is the worst flashing I think I’ve ever seen on a production figure. The facial features are a bit soft, but no worse than some of the Captain Americas we’ve seen in the last few years. The paint around the mask is fairly well done, but the white crest is suffers from the same bleeding and dirty look as the gauntlets.

At least the articulation is good, eh? Well, on paper it is. Red Guardian features all the points I’m used to seeing in a Legends buck. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and double hinges in the elbows. The legs are ball jointed and feature swivels in the thighs and boots, double hinges in the knees, and hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. There’s a waist swivel, an ab crunch hinge, and the neck is both ball jointed and hinged. What’s the problem? First of all the elbow hinges are as gummy and soft as all hell. Secondly, the left knee on my figure was fused. I had to boil him to get it to work, and even then I thought it was going to snap off.

Is there anything I like about this figure? Yeah, the shield is pretty cool. Sure, it’s just the standard Cap style shield with the clip and peg on the back, but I really like the paint they did on it. The crimson is a nice deep shade and in the right light, the star actually looks like brushed steel. If they could invest this kind of quality paint in the accessory, why not the rest of the figure?

Red Guardian is a mess of a figure and almost everything about him shows that Hasbro just didn’t care about this release. I’m all for quick repaints when it suits a character, and this one would have been fine if they had put a little effort into it. I was actually looking forward to getting him in my collection, I’m glad he’s represented, but I just wish he looked better. How about a Legends scale Crimson Dynamo next, Hasbro? And don’t mess him up! Check back later this evening, and we’ll check out Nuke!

Sep 29 2016

Transformers Titans Return: Monxo & Wolfwire by Hasbro

The Titans Return Deluxe Class love-fest continues today with Wolfwire and Monxo. Seriously, Hasbro? Those are the names your going with? I’m hard pressed to say which is worse. I thought now that we’re finally back to Hasbro making these characters instead of third parties, we could cool it with the wacked out names, but nope. Somewhere along the way Hasbro misplaced some trademarks and instead of Weirdwolf and Monzo, we get Wolfwire and Monxo. Does it really matter? Nah, because as we’re about to see, these are some great toys and in the end I can call them whatever I want.

Cue the gratuitous packaged shot! Wolfwire comes packaged in his robot mode with Monxo attached as his noggin, but I’m going straight for the alt mode first!

“Just one thing. You can only have the heads of the animals!” Cyclonus’ words from Rebirth give us a clue as to why we’re seeing so many animal based Decepticons in this line. Because, yes, Wolfwire’s alt mode is a cybernetic wolf and it is an absolutely beautiful homage to the original G1 toy. You’d have to look to Fansproject’s Quadruple-U (and pay a whole lot more) for a better treatment of this alt mode. And that’s not intended as a left-handed compliment, because Hasbro did a beautiful job with this guy. He is absolutely striking and so much fun.

The sculpt here is exactly what I was looking for. He’s got that delightful mix of curves and hard angles, the key ingredients that make up any great cybernetic animal. I just adore the sculpted rocket packs on the tops of his front legs. The deco is very faithful to the original, with some beautiful yellow and blue plastics, some pale gray, and a little silver and red paint to make things pop.

Hasbro really nailed it with the wolf head, from the serrated edges on the ears to the recessed textured red panels on the sides. It even has a hinged jaw that reveals translucent red teeth. Brilliant! Did I mention the tiny Decepticon emblems on his upper legs? Beautiful!

Monxo is your standard little head-robo. He’s blue and gray and as we’ve seen so far in this wave, Hasbro has nixed the paint apps from these tiny guys, which continues to bum me out. You still get points of articulation in the knees, hips, shoulders, and head, all of which are related to the transformation.

Despite being a wolf, Wolfwire still has a cockpit area for Monxo to sit and it’s quite roomy. The whole top of his back panel hinges upward and there’s some red tinted plastic to make up the canopy and a little sculpted seat.

You can also tab Wolfwire’s chunky gun onto his back to make a gunning station for Monxo or another little head guy.

Transforming Wolfwire into his robot mode features a couple cool moves to shrink the torso, drop the upper hind legs down to his lower robot legs, and, as expected, the tail pulls out to become his sword. The end result is a robot mode that is every bit as good as his wolf mode, and that’s certainly saying something! He’s a little bit stocky in the torso, but the proportions are still very good. You get some useful heel spurs that fold out of his animal feet to steady him, and those glorious rocket packs wind up on his shoulders. Like the other Titans Return Deluxes, he has a faked out chest panel, which covered the tech specs on the original G1 figures. The deco retains the same beautiful color palate as his wolf mode.

He definitely sports some wolf kibble on his back. The upside down wolf head forms his backpack and his cockpit hangs off like a tail bone. Here you can also see his back wolf feet hanging off his forearms. Still, it’s nothing too bad.

Monxo makes for a decent head, although I think the face sculpt could have been a little sharper. The red paint is beautiful, but it’s hard to make out the details in the face.

We’ve already seen Wolfwire’s big gun. I do feel it’s a tad over-sized for his robot mode, but no quite so much that it looks ludicrous in his hands.

And finally, you get the tail sword, a nice sculpt with some red paint apps. He can also wear it on his hip.

I don’t like to throw around the word perfect a lot, because few figures really are, but Wolfwire comes pretty damn close. I literally love everything about this figure except his new name. The coloring, the sculpt, the transformation, and the overall fun factor makes this a splendid update to one of my favorite G1 Headmasters and another addition to my collection of great Deluxe Class figures from this Titans Return line. I never want this line to end! Next week, I’ll wrap up this wave with a look at Highbrow.

Sep 26 2016

Marvel Legends (Giant Man Wave): Nick Fury by Hasbro

Marvel Legends continues to crank out bucket loads of 6-inch scale plastic comic book heroes and villains, making me a very happy and broke Marvel fan. But what really amazes me about this line these days is its willingness to take risks. Hasbro has not only been dipping into obscurity fairly often, they’re not afraid to confuse the hell out of moms, dads, and casual collectors alike. Case in point… in a wave that is more or less dedicated to the Marvel Cinematic take on Civil War, we get a very classic comic version of Nick Fury.

The package is everything we’ve already seen before, so I’m not going to dwell on it for too long. The window box features some nice blue-tinted character art on the side panels and is sort of branded for the Civil War film. Well, it says Captain America on the front. Regardless, when little Timmy says he wants a Nick Fury figure and mom or dad goes to the store and finds a box that says Nick Fury and Captain America, little Timmy may be vexed that he’s not getting a Samuel Jackson. That’s probably why I only ever see middle aged dudes searching the Marvel Legends pegs these days. And that’s a beautiful thing. And yes, I do realize that in this day and age a good chunk of those moms and dads may also be Marvel Comics fans, but I think my point is still at least somewhat valid. Where the hell was I? Oh yeah… Nick Fury!

Oh, hell and yes! This is the Fury that I grew up with and has been and still is the very definition of badass. Nothing against Jackson, I think he does a great job in the role, but I wish they had kept a little more of this classic uniform for the MCU rather than go for the tired and cliched black trench coat thing. Here, Fury features a dark blue buck with white boots and gloves and the SHIELD emblems printed in silver and blue on his shoulders. He’s also loaded with belts and pouches! These pieces include a rig on his right thigh, which includes a functional holster, two belts on his waist, and a shoulder rig with a holster that contains a gun sculpted into it. The white on the boots and gloves is both clean and bright, with no bleeding like we usually see on figures with white over dark bucks. The rest of his white gear features a nice paint wash to pick out all the sculpted details.

The standard portrait here is a almost a home-run. It’s iconic Nick Fury with his graying hair, five-o’clock shadow, and eye patch. The sculpt is top notch, while the paint has just one issue. They left the area under the hairline unpainted and when you’re looking up at the figure from below, it looks kind of weird. Everything else is great.

The figure features plenty of articulation, but I’m sorry to say that some of the joints here are a bit loose, floppy, and or gummy. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, and swivels in both the thighs and the tops of the boots. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch hinge in the torso, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. So, where are the issues. The neck is extremely loose and the hinges in the knees and elbows are gummy. The ab crunch also has a little too much play in it for my liking.

Fury comes with a gray pistol that appropriately looks like a cross between a Luger and a laser pistol. It fits nicely into his thigh holster. A rifle would have been nice, but I could pretty much complain that any figure needs more weapons. In this case, instead of more weapons, we got two alternate heads.

First off is this helmeted head, which I presume is to turn Fury into a SHIELD trooper. It’s a nice idea, but army building this figure probably isn’t going to be easy, as it’s been tough to get at regular price. Granted, it’s come down quite a bit since its release. Either way, this head looks a little too much like GI JOE meets HALO for me to get excited about it on a Marvel Legends figure. I’ll bet customizers will go nuts over it.

Next up we have a Dirk Anger head, which is a delightful way to troll the casuals. This is a pack-in that both befuddles and delights me and offers further proof that Hasbro is willing to take risks. Was anyone really asking for this? I can’t imagine they were. Am I ever going to display this on the figure? Nope. And yet I’m kind of happy we got it. It’s just a cool and outrageous little bonus.

As you can probably have guessed, I was super excited to get a classic Nick Fury on my Marvel Legends shelf. And while I have a few issues with the figure, there’s nothing here that keeps me from enjoying it. Some tighter joints and a little more paint to fill out that hairline and this would have been a five-star release in my book. As it is, it’s still plenty good, and it may very well wind up being my favorite figure in this wave. Next time on Marvel Monday… I’m doubling up on Nuke and Red Guardian so I can get through all these goddamn figures a little quicker!

DP: “OooOoooOoooh… Lookit all the POUCHES!! Saaay, that thigh rig looks familiar!!”

DP: “YOINK… Gotyergun Fury!!!”

Sep 22 2016

Transformers Titans Return: Vorath & Mindwipe by Hasbro

“The powers are darkness are a more powerful weapon than all the toys your science can muster!” …Mindwipe! As a kid, I only got to know him from “The Rebirth,” but man did I love him. He talked like a Transylvanian Count, could mind control his adversaries, and he turned into a freaking robot bat. Sadly, I never owned the original G1 toy, but now after all these years, I’m finally getting a brand new version of him from Hasbro. Needless to say, I’m excited!

Let’s not waste a lot of time on the package, eh? He comes carded in his robot mode, but I’m going straight for the bat mode.

Meh… he’s OK. He is indeed a robo-bat, but I’m sorry to say not a terribly exciting one. There just isn’t a ton of play-ability to this mode, nor are there a lot of display options. He’s designed to pretty much stand there on his little bat feet with his wings spread. The wings are hinged in several places, thanks to the transformation, so you can fold them in towards his body, but that’s about it. The head is designed to look straight ahead, so getting him into a flying pose where he’s looking ahead of himself instead of down isn’t going to happen. There also aren’t any really exciting places to plug in his weapons in this mode, which is a first for this line.

There are, however, some rather impressive sculpted details on this figure. The wings have a lot going on with textures and patterns. The deco is quite attractive too, with a lot of those prime Decepticon colors, black and purple, and a little reddish-brown mixed in as well.

And that face! Awww, he’s so cute! The bat head sculpt is great, even though it’s cast in a soft plastic, and I adore the hinged lower jaw with the tiny silver teeth. I just really wish there was some articulation in the neck.

Vorath is your typical little head-changer robot. He’s got articulation in the knees and hips (even though his legs are fused together), as well as in the shoulders and neck. Looks like Hasbro isn’t painting these guys at all in this wave, and that’s a real bummer. I can barely tell which side of his head is supposed to be facing front.

Mindwipe’s cockpit is in the center of his chest with a translucent purple door that hinges down. I have to say, I really dig the way Vorath sits in him like he’s controlling a giant bat mech. And GOD-DAMMIT! His head is turned backwards in that picture. I didn’t even notice it until now. Thanks again, Hasbro for not painting faces on these anymore.

Fortunately, Mindwipe’s robot mode makes up for the somewhat lackluster bat mode. At least, it does as far as I’m concerned. The transformation features a few cool things, like the way the wings roll up to form his legs. The lower legs are a bit bulky for the rest of the bot, but I still really dig the overall look of this guy. Once again, the color palate is fantastic. Lots of purple and black, a little of that brownish-red, and his knees have some beautiful silver grills on them. As far as color schemes go, this is pure Decepticon goodness.

Sure, he has a bat head hanging off his back, but otherwise, he’s surprisingly free of bat-kibble. Even the stubby wings on his shoulders are faked out and just there for show. They also have a lot of cool details sculpted into them. The soft plastic wing tips don’t peg in too strongly to form the backs of his legs, but it doesn’t really seem to effect the stability of the figure.

And what Vorath lacks in paint apps on his robot mode, he makes up for by making a fantastic head for Mindwipe.

Mindwipe comes with two weapons. We’ve usually seen them by now, but since I don’t really like any of the places to plug them into his alt mode, I haven’t busted them out until now. The first one is a sort of claw-blade-shield-thing that plugs into his forearms. This is the piece that can also double as a gunner station for Vorath if you sit him in it and plug his other weapon in. There’s not much use for it on this figure, but you can plug it into one of the other guys if you’re into all that kinky robot part sharing, ya freaks!

The other weapon is a simple gun. This thing is pretty cool. It’s compact and looks great in his hands.

Do I sound disappointed in Mindwipe? I dunno. Maybe I am a little bit. I wouldn’t rank him up there among the best in this line so far, but he’s certainly not among the worst either. I think I probably expected too much out of the bat mode, which is perfectly serviceable, but not nearly as fun as some of the other alt modes I’ve seen in this line. Still, I think the robot mode washes away all sins. Mindwipe looks great in his robot mode and he’s a decent homage to his G1 namesake. If I want something a little more substantial and sophisticated, I can always turn to my Sigma-L from Fansproject. In the meantime, this guy will look just fine on my expanding Titans Return shelf.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: hasbro

Star Wars Black (Rogue One): Captain Cassian Andor (Eadu) by Hasbro

Star Wars Black (Rogue One): Sergeant Jyn Erso (Jedha) by Hasbro

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

Marvel Legends (Giant Man Wave): Black Panther by Hasbro

Transformers: Titans Return Xort & Highbrow by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Giant Man Wave): Nuke by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Giant Man Wave): Red Guardian by Hasbro

Transformers Titans Return: Monxo & Wolfwire by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Giant Man Wave): Nick Fury by Hasbro

Transformers Titans Return: Vorath & Mindwipe by Hasbro

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