Tag Archives: hasbro

Aug 23 2023

G.I. JOE Classified: Torpedo by Hasbro

My pile of GI JOE Classified figures is stacking up, so I really need to double my efforts to get into these. Three reviews a week seems like a lot of work, but it isn’t enough to keep up with all the toys I want to look at. In a lot of cases, I’ve been doubling up on figures in each review, but I feel as if there’s too much great stuff to talk about with the Classified figures and I want to give each one their own review. So, let’s take a dive under the water today and check out  Ed Leialoha, aka Torpedo!

I was probably around thirteen when I got the first Torpedo figure and he was one of my absolute favorites for a while. Keep in mind, my first experiences playing with GI JOE was with the 12-inch figures. My Uncle had given my brother and I his whole collection and we were always playing with them. When I started getting the new 3 3/4-inch JOEs, I tended to really take to the ones with a lot of gear, so figures like Snowjob and Torpedo were among my favorites because all their gear reminded me of playing with the bigger figures. Also, whenever I would get a new JOE my Dad would explain a lot of the filecard stuff to me, as he was a military history buff. I can still remember getting Torpedo and him telling me all about Navy SEALs and what they did. I think he was happy to see me move from playing with Star Wars to GI JOE because it was something he could relate to a little more… at least until things started getting really goofy. Anyway, Torpedo comes in a fully enclosed box with some excellent artwork. Inside you get a cardboard foot locker with all his gear in a tissue paper bag.

Here is the base figure before suiting up to dive under the waves and boy does he look great! Hasbro did very little to change that iconic black and gray suit, and I’m certainly happy about that. They did add some paint to the belt, which adds a bit of detail, but my favorite addition is the little sonar instrument he has attached to his right wrist. He also adds a brace of pouches strapped to his left thigh and a sheath for his combat knife on his right thigh. You get a soft plastic shoulder harness with a couple of red pouches added to his right shoulder, and a black one on the left. This is exactly how I like to see my Classified figures, with deep roots in the vintage original and just enough modern flourishes to make if feel fresh.

The head sculpt is pretty good, but I think they uglied Ed up a bit. Hey, not every JOE can be as handsome as Chuckles, and to be honest I think the portrait gives him a lot of personality. The skin tone is also excellent, especially considering my vintage Torpedo looked like he had jaundice. There is some pretty bad paint slop around the lines of the hood where the black paint is over sprayed onto his skin. It’s tolerable when the figure is in hand, but it looks absolutely terrible when you punch in close. If he shows up for clearance, I may try my luck on another, otherwise I can live with it. Let’s check out some of his weapons before he hits the water.

I really dig how Hasbro is improving the knives in this line. For a while we were just getting simple sculpts cast in black plastic, but here we get a red painted grip and a black blade with a serrated back and a nasty looking clip to the point. This fits perfectly in the sheath and he can comfortably wield it in either hand.

Next up we get a sweet little automatic short-barreled rifle with a removable magazine. This is a great bonus, since the original figure only came with his harpoon, and sometimes even divers have to exterminate Cobras on dry land. The sculpt on this little weapon is very detailed, and while I don’t recognize the model, the design definitely looks like it’s grounded in reality. OK… time to suit up and go below!

Much like the vintage figure, Classified Torpedo has a pair of flippers and an O2 tank for his back, but here we actually add a face mask. The backpack is a pretty big departure from the vintage design, but I still like it a lot. Gone are the thruster-like side pieces and the red tanks, all abandoned for a simple and streamlined black tank. The flippers are cast in soft plastic and actually fit around his feet, rather than just pegging into the bottoms. They also have holes so you still have access to the foot pegs, which is a great little touch.

The mask has hoses that peg into the O2 tank and it just fits right over the head with soft plastic straps. This is such a great addition to the figure, as I had to use my childhood imagination that there was some kind of shield over vintage Torpedo’s eyes. The goggle lenses are painted silver and you get some red gray paint hits on the breather apparatus. The tubes even seem to stay put when I articulate his head, which is a nice surprise, as I thought they’d be popping out left and right.

Finally, you get the harpoon gun. A lot of folks were complaining about how rubbery and warped this thing was, so I was a bit worried when I opened the bag of accessories. It is indeed rubbery and warpy, but mine is actually not too bad. I like the sculpted loop to hook it around his arm, and there’s a clip on the bottom of the O2 tank to store it horizontally across his lower back.

Dare I say that Classified Torpedo is a direct hit? Well he is in my book! He’s the textbook example of what I look for in these figures. The base body lines up beautifully with the vintage design, while the scuba gear is all given a well needed modern update. The bendy harpoon gun is a tad disappointing and the paint on the head could have been a lot cleaner, but there’s so much else to love here, I’m not going to let it sink my enjoyment of this figure. The only sad thing here is that I don’t have a Cobra Eel for him to fight, and who knows if I ever will. Hasbro decided to make it an Amazon exclusive and it sold out fast and scalpers are selling them at double the price or more. Still, I think I’ll keep the nautical theme going for my next Classified review… but will it be Cobra or another JOE? We’ll see…

Aug 14 2023

Indiana Jones Adventure Series (Raiders of the Lost Ark): Staff of Ra Headpiece by Hasbro

It seems like forever ago that the Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny hype train pulled into the station with a wet thud and then chugged on off into the sunset. I’m on record saying that I didn’t love or hate the movie, it was just something I watched and have since mostly forgotten. But, just like Crystal Skull, at least it meant new toys, and while I’m waiting for more of the 6-inch Adventure Series figures to show up, I decided to have a look at today’s worthless bronze medallion.

OK, it is neither worthless or bronze, and I don’t even know what to call it. It’s not what I would consider a prop replica, so let’s go with roleplay item? Yeah, that sounds right. It’s officially part of the Adventure Series much in the way Hasbro has released helmets and lightsabers as part of their Star Wars Black Series. But it’s definitely aimed at collectors, because how many kids are running around asking their parents for a plastic toy of a Hebrew artifact designed to locate the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant? Actually, I would have loved to have this when I was a kid, but I guess I was a pretty weird kid. I’m almost positive this was an online exclusive, because I never saw it in any of the toy aisles. It comes in a simple fully enclosed box with some nice artwork of Indy using the Medallion in the Cairo Map Room.

Out of the box, the set includes three pieces: The Medallion, a very abbreviated version of the staff, and a base. You will need to have a screwdriver handy to pop in the two AA batteries needed for the light effect. I think Hasbro did a great job designing the whole display piece, as it’s perfect for putting on a desk or bookshelf and it has a pretty nice shelf presence to it without actually including the entirety of the really long staff. There are actually four holes that you can put the staff into, but only one is the correct one that will light it up. OK, that’s kind of clever, I see what you did there, Hasbro.

While the base isn’t terrible, I definitely think it’s the weakest element of the whole set. It is, however, fairly heavy, as it holds the batteries and electronics. In addition to the holes for the staff, you get some deeply cut hieroglyphs and some spray to look like sand. The edges are sculpted to look like rock to give it a kind of pedestal display effect. Like I said, nothing here is bad, but I think the hieroglyphs look a bit too chunky and fake. Then again, it’s a toy and not a high end replica, so I should probably cut it some slack.

The Medallion itself is actually quite impressive in terms of the sculpt and finish. I’ve seen some rather expensive replicas of this piece get the finish all wrong by making it shiny gold and not antiqued bronze. Yeah, there should be a bit more of a sheen to it than this one has, but it still looks better to me than a bright mirror polish I’ve seen on the metal ones. The sculpted detail is quite nice with with all the feathers in the bird and the Hebrew lettering laid out around the circumference. I also think the red crystal in the center looks great. Overall, it feels like it’s sized pretty correctly, albeit maybe a tad too thick, but I’m not even sure about that. The Medallion can be detached from the staff just by pulling it off, but it’s a bit scary because it locks in pretty tight. It would have been cool if Hasbro included a chain.

There’s a triangular button on the top of the front of the staff that will activate the lights when you press it and turn them off when you press it again. This causes the red crystal in the center (OK, slighly off-center) to light as well as the lettering around the edges. Yeah, Hasbro took some liberties with this effect, because I’m pretty sure the lettering on the prop was not intended to be lighting up when the sun struck the central crystal. Still, it does make for a really cool effect, and it’s more impressive than just the crystal being lit. So, a bunch of demerits for lack of screen accuracy on the light feature, but I’ll take back a few of those to honor the Hasbro designers who made a cooler looking effect. I will say the lights are pretty bright and readily visible even in a well lit environment.

Yeah, that’s it. A pretty short review today, but there’s only so much I can say about this thing. I picked up the Headpiece for just under $50, and I’m actually pretty happy with it, especially since I haven’t been seeing it clearanced out yet. Sure, it’s a plastic toy so it’s not going to win over the prop replica collectors, but I wasn’t about to drop a ton of money on any of those and this makes for a nice display piece among my Indiana Jones figures and vehicles. It’s an oddball item for sure, but I think it’s cool that Hasbro took a risk and delivered something like this.

Aug 9 2023

Star Wars Black Series (Knights of the Old Republic) Bastila Shan by Hasbro

Somewhere along the way, Hasbro’s Black Series has lost me. Sure, some of it has to do with Disney curb-stomping the brand into the gutter these last few years, but I’m kind of tired of so many repacks and repaints when there are still so many of the old Kenner figures that still need to be done. The 40th Anniversary of Return of the Jedi should have given us so many figures, and instead we got a couple new ones and a bunch of old stuff repacked on vintage style cards. Case in point, I haven’t looked at a SWB figure here in eight months! Sure, in some cases I get backlogged, but in this case, I just haven’t been buying any of the figures. But, I did pre-order Bastila Shan and she showed up, so let’s do some Black Series today!

I’ve expressed my undying love for Knights of the Old Republic several times here on FFZ, and even the mere act of checking out this figure has me thinking about it being time for yet another replay. And I will forever be bitter that Hasbro didn’t get to do a big marketing push alongside the game. I mean, here we are twenty years later and we still have only seen a few characters released as figures. It’s a crime, so the least I could do was support this release of Bastila Shan like I did back when Darth Revan was released. Anyway, Shan comes in the fully enclosed plastic-free packaging with the GAMING GREATS logo on the front. You get some character art on the side, and everything here is collector friendly.

Straightaway, this release is such a huge improvement over the 3 3/4-inch Bastila we got way back when. It’s not so much just the new opportunities that come with the jump up in scale, but just the coloring and accuracy of her costume as well. There’s a great sense of layering here with the tan bodysuit being the figure base and the burgundy tunic being cast in soft plastic and worn over the body. Even the top edges of the boots convey a very nice sense of depth, like the figure is actually wearing them. The flaps that drop from her waist on the front and sides are made of pretty pliable plastic and I’m pleased to say that they tend to work pretty well with the articulation. A lot of the coloring here looks like it’s done through the plastic, but the paint lines are nice and sharp too. AND YES, THAT’S A GODDAMN CAT HAIR ON HER BOOT IN THE SECOND PICTURE WHICH I DIDN’T NOTICE UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE!!!

The head sculpt is solid, but maybe not exceptional. The facial details are printed on and look fine in hand, while breaking down a bit as you punch in with the camera. The hair sculpting is excellent, but I just don’t see a whole lot of likeness there for the character in the game. I gather that Shan has been in a lot of other media since the game, so maybe this portrait is based more on one of those? Either way, it’s certainly not bad. Maybe a little less shadowing under the eyes would have helped.

The articulation here is mostly great, with the one throwback being the arms. We get the usual rotating hinges in the elbows instead of double-hinges and bicep swivels. Yup, Hasbro loves doing this with the ladies and I have no idea why. Normally, I’ve come to except it, but it hurts a bit more here when trying to get her to wield her lightsaber with both hands. Other than that, you get some great range of motion in the hips, there are double hinges in the knees, swivels in the thighs, and the ankles have hinges and lateral rockers. The ball joint in the waist has some decent range, and you get a ball joint in the neck. She’s fun to play with, but I’ll be happy if the rotating hinges in the elbows get retired.

Her lightsaber is her only accessory and it comes with two yellow blades that can be pegged in and removed. The hilt is pretty big as far as lightsabers go, and you get some nice silver paint on the ends and black for the grip in the middle. I really hate how gimmicky and ridiculous the lightsaber designs have become, from the spinning blades to whatever the hell grimdark Rey had in whatever movie that was. Still, I kind of have a soft spot for this one, since it reminds me of how badly I wanted a Double Brand in Phantasy Star Online.

I like this figure a lot. No one thing about it is particularly amazing, but it all comes together into what is a very solid Bastila Shan figure, and that’s what I’m here for. And maybe that sums up a lot of my feelings for the Black Series lately. It’s almost always totally competent, with the occasional flourish here and there, and that’s fine when it’s turning out characters I want. But as Hasbro continues to milk previously released figures with Carbonized and Christmas repaints, I’m left waiting for characters we should have had ages ago. Where were my Skiff Guards for the RotJ 40th Anniversary? Where are the rest of my Ewoks? Where’s my Crix Madine? That’s fine… my wallet is happy for the reprieve.

Jul 24 2023

G.I. JOE Classified: Bazooka by Hasbro

It’s hard to believe that I haven’t revisited the Classified line since April, but then again I have been getting caught up on the Super7 G.I. JOE Ultimates line, so that’s the excuse I’m going with. Nevertheless the Classified figures have been piling up and it’s time to remedy that today as we look at David Katzenbogen, aka Bazooka!

Yeah, I am not a fan of this art. This might be cool as an art print, but why Hasbro thinks this is a good way to convey what’s in the box for an action figure line is beyond me. It looks like something you’d find hanging on the wall at wine and cheese night at the community college art show. At least you get a small picture of the figure on the front and more on the back panel. I was excited to get Bazooka because I was a big fan of the vintage figure, and I always thought the cartoon did him dirty. The Bazooka figure I played with was a fast and decisive thinker, just like his filecard noted, and not a slow, dimwitted guy who could barely articulate his thoughts into the English language. G.I. JOE was supposed to be the best of the best, and my vision of this character fit that ideal a little better.

In terms of sculpting, Bazooka was one of the simpler figures for Hasbro to produce, but he still looks great. His standard issue trousers have some sculpted pockets and are tucked into high black boots. This is all contrasted by his bright red football jersey with blue and white numbering and sleeve stripes. Yeah, the numbering is interrupted by the cut for his chest ball joint, but it’s not like that could be helped. He has a pair of green wrist cuffs and a black belt with silver buckle that is attached around his waist. This looks good, but it can have a habit of riding up when posing him. I really dig the build Hasbro gave him, as he’s a pretty buff figure all around with some nice muscle definition in his arms.

While Bazooka has standard Classified male articulation, the jointing on this guy feels a little weird. The joints offer a little more resistance and sometimes when I thought I had tweaked them, they revert back to the way they were. I’ve found that working the figure has resolved this a bit, and I’m hoping that the more I play around with him, the more cooperative his joints will get. Because of his dual handed weapon, Bazooka comes with two trigger finger hands, and that’s cool because these can double as fists well enough.

The portrait is really good, even if it strays a bit into caricature, I’m not looking for super realism on my Classified figures and I dig when they get a bit stylized. He’s got a power house of a neck, a beefy cleft chin, high cheek bones, and a bushy mustache and eyebrows. The paint could be lined up on that stache a little better, but it’s not too bad. The helmet has some sculpted wrinkles to show it’s got a cover on it and I love how one of the chin straps flies off to the side. There ain’t no way those straps are going under that monument of a chin anyway! The helmet is removable and you get a neatly combed coif with a sharply defined part.

All of Bazooka’s accessories fit on his back, which is pretty cool. You get the backpack that holds four of his bazooka rounds and two arms to attach the bazooka across the back. The pack is cast in olive green plastic with some nice detail. The four compartments up top house the bazooka rounds, of which two are left plain, one has a painted yellow tip, and the other has some nose art on it. The bazooka has some excellent detail too and the padding on the side is painted black.

There’s also a sling if you prefer to have the bazooka over his shoulder. I imagine it can be difficult to get through doors with it stored horizontal on the pack.

The back of the bazooka is pegged and swings open so you can load in one of the rounds. I think this is a great idea, but this piece comes off way too easily. You can also have a round peeking out the front as if it’s about to fire or in the process of firing. I like to pop the yellow tip in there because it’s easier to see. I think Hasbro really missed an opportunity here not to give us a smoke trail to show the round leaving the tube and a blowback effect part for the back. They’re doing some amazing effect parts with the multi-packs and Bazooka would have been a great opportunity to introduce some here.

Lack of effect parts aside, I think Hasbro did a great job on this figure. He’s a great mix of realistic military MOS with the colorful characters that the G.I. JOE brand brings to the table. His gear is fun to play with and it’s always a plus for me when a figure can carry everything they come with. Now if we can get Alpine and Quick Kick to display by his side, I’ll be even happier!

Jul 10 2023

Dungeons & Dragons (Cartoon Classics): Eric, Presto, and Sheila by Hasbro

Late last year, Hasbro began making one of this old kid’s dream come true by delivering action figures based on the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. The show was great (still is!) and It was one of those rare instances where a pretty successful cartoon didn’t have any related toys. The first figures hit and included Hank, Diana, Bobby, and Uni, with Venger and Dungeon Master in a single set. And while the figures looked really good, it was a nightmare of QC issues and more broken limbs than a bad roll in a battle with a Bugbear. With the second wave completing the party, all I could do was wait and hope for the best.

And here they are! This assortment wraps up the party with Sheila the Thief, Eric the Cavalier, and Presto the Wizard. The figures come in the same style packaging as the previous releases, which is a mix of windowless box and card. As far as windowless packaging goes, I think these look really nice. The cartoon-style character art is wonderful and the pictures on the box are fairly accurate to what’s inside. I also really dig the side panels line up to create an interconnected image of the entire party. Each figure also comes with a die used in the actual tabletop game, which is shown on the front of the packaging. So, let’s get one thing out of the way first… I had zero QC issues with any of these figures and I didn’t even have to heat them up. All the joints worked perfectly right out of the package. And while it’s a shame to have to call that out as a win, at least maybe Hasbro got the message from the initial run of figures. Let’s start with Sheila…

I was extremely happy with this figure the moment it came out of the box, and I think Hasbro absolutely nailed everything about her. Indeed, I think she’s on par with her brother as being two of the best looking figures so far. The costume features a pink tunic cinched at the waist with an aqua-colored belt. The tunic and belt are made of soft plastic forming a skirt with slits up the sides so as not to inhibit the hip articulation too badly. Sheila’s high brown boots have sculpted bands around the edges at her thighs, and I like how pronounced these are, rather than just being painted on. She comes with two versions of her Cloak of Invisibility, the one seen above has the hood sculpted down behind her head and the whole thing is cast in lavender plastic. It’s held on simply by hanging around her neck and it looks great.

The head sculpt is very nice, and while Hasbro seems to be putting a little bit of their own spin on the cartoon designs, I still think this is a great likeness for Sheila in the cartoon. She’s got perfectly printed eyes and some freckles dotting her cheeks. The orange hair is a separate piece and it frames her face beautifully.

Articulation for all of these figures remains more or less the same, with just a few variations. With Sheila, you get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, and ankles. There are ball joints in the hips, double-hinges in the knees, a ball joint in the waist and neck, and swivels in the thighs. Even with the plastic skirt, she has a nice range of motion.

The alternate Cloak includes a separate piece for the hood and the Cloak itself can be seen gradually turning invisible down near the bottom edge. It’s a nice effect for a power that is difficult to portray in action figure form. The hood fits the figure’s head very well and since it’s a separate piece it doesn’t inhibit her head movement. I was kind of hoping we might see an SDCC Exclusive clear variant of Sheila, but I suspect Hasbro is probably done with this line. Moving on to Eric…

So, where Sheila was a homerun, Eric is more like a walk with a runner on third. I was a bit disappointed when I got him out of the box, but to be honest, he’s grown on me quite a bit since then. The body is pretty good, with a yellow tunic and orange belt, treated much the same way as Sheila’s. You get some shiny silver paint for the arms with a very soft sculpt depicting the mail. The thighs are a little duller, and the boots and knee guards are just left bare gray plastic. The red cape looks really good and hangs well on the figure. My biggest complaint here is that the bare plastic for the lower legs looks a bit cheap.

The articulation here takes a step back from Sheila’s as Eric’s knees have rotating hinges rather than double-hinges. He also doesn’t have any thigh swivels, which makes his legs look a little weird when he’s standing straight. It’s not ideal, but I got used to it.

The head sculpt is… OK. I appreciate that they gave Eric a face that looks like it needs to be punched, because he was a real jerk in the cartoon. I don’t think the likeness is bad at all and I dig the little Alfalfa-like sprout of hair jutting off the top of his head. But this is one instance where I wish we got a second head with a scared expression, because Eric was such a sniveling coward.

Eric comes with his shield, which clips onto his arm. It’s cast in orange plastic with a painted griffon emblem on the front. It looks OK, but there’s a bit of black paint slop around the central emblem.

You also get a pretty cool magic effect piece, made of soft semi translucent plastic, which clips on around the edge of the shield. It goes on pretty easy and it looks fantastic. OK, let’s move on to the final figure, Presto!

Happily, I think Presto ranks up there with Sheila as being one of the best in the line. He’s got his green wizard robes, complete with dangly sleeves and a pouch, which maybe holds magical reagents or maybe his D&D dice. This figure sports the least amount of detail because of his simple toony outfit, but I like that Hasbro put a little rumple in the front and on the sleeves to break up that field of green. He has slits up the sides of his robes, but his legs are still more or less confined to under the robe, so most of the articulation is used to keep him standing up.

And like Sheila, Hasbro knocked it out of the park with this portrait. The glasses are sculpted as part of the face and that was definitely the way to go here. The paint on the thin frames is also pretty damn clean. They did a great job on the shape of his face and the ears and even the hair looks fantastic. The hat is attached to the hairpiece with a large tab, so to have him take off the hat, you swap out the hairpiece for one that doesn’t have the tab. This is pretty easy to do and a clever way to make the switch.

Presto’s left hand is designed to hold the hat and his right hand is a pointy-spell casting hand. You also get two magic effect parts, both cast in translucent purple plastic. The first depicts magic energy emerging from the hat.

The second is a stream of magical energy that runs from the hat to a clip that goes around Presto’s right wrist, and boy does this look awesome! It looks so awesome that I feel bad pointing out that it isn’t the same effect piece that’s shown on the front of the package which creates more of a spell shooting from his hand effect. I would have liked to get that one too, but man this one is so good, I’m not going to complain about it.

And with these three figures on my shelf, Hasbro really has made a dream come true for my toy collection. I’ve wanted figures like these ever since I was a kid and it seems like such a small miracle to get them all this time later. I mean, who the hell could have guessed that we’d get these forty years later? Yes, it’s a shame that the early figures were marred with QC issues, but Hasbro seemed to get their hands around that and pull it together at the end. Would I like to see the line continue? Of course! Do I think it’s going to… nah. It seems like a stretch to get figures from some of the one-off characters appearing in the various episodes. But I’m still holding out just a little hope that we might get Tiamat!

Jul 7 2023

Marvel Legends (GotG v3): Kraglin, Adam Warlock and Cosmo BAF by Hasbro

Well, hello folks! I’ve been a bad host this week, but I’m happy I was able to show up before the end with at least one piece of content. I had my head buried in work with some big projects, which I swore up and down I would no longer be doing, but it is what it is. Anyway, I got some cool toys in this week and hope to have a full slate of reviews for next week. As for now, let’s wrap up the Guardians of the Galaxy 3 Wave with the last two packaged figures and the Build-A-Figure!

If you need to get caught up, the previous figures were Deluxe Groot, Star-Lord, Mantis, Drax, Nebula, and Rocket. Groot was not technically part of this wave, and Star-Lord did not have any BAF parts, but collecting the rest allow you to build the Russian Space Pooch, and we’ll check her out at the end. Let’s start with Adam Warlock…

Warlock was fine in the movie, but I wasn’t expecting too much out of him. He certainly wasn’t worth the tease that we got at the end of Guardians 2. As for the figure, this was probably the one I was least looking forward to in this entire assortment. But that doesn’t mean he’s a bad figure. The costume sculpt is actually quite impressive. There’s a nice layering effect from the super fine chain mail texture to the plates and contour lines which all add a very cool complexity to the base figure. This may be some of the best sculpting in any Legends MCU costume to date. But the MCU suit aesthetic is getting a bit threadbare and there’s just getting to be a general sameness about them to me. I feel like there are some similar design beats between this suit and Vision’s when they should be completely different. With that having been said, the coloring is very nice with a mix of glossy red and pale gold, and the printed pattern on the cape is sharp and snappy.

The head sculpt is pretty good. I was not familiar with the actor who played him, but the likeness here seems pretty good. I’m not thrilled with the gold plastic they used for his face and hair. It doesn’t really convey the same effect as the onscreen makeup, but it’s not bad either.

And that’s really all I have to say about this guy. The articulation is exactly what you would expect and the pinless joints are nice. I just can’t say I had a lot of fun posing him or playing around with him. If he didn’t come with a BAF part, I probably would have passed on him or waited until clearance. I also wish we had gotten a Ravager version of Gamora in his slot instead. But at the same time, I’m happy to add him to the shelf. Let’s move on to Kraglin…

Apparently even being the Director’s brother doesn’t guarantee you an action figure, at least not until you’ve been in all three movies. But here we are finally getting Kraglin in Marvel Legends. Granted, he’s had the biggest role in this last one, taking over the mantle (and fin) from his deceased Captain. I was pretty excited to get him and this figure does not disappoint. The attention to detail in the costume is very well done, with various textures and bits of padding in the sculpt. You also get some reinforced panels and a shoulder rig that includes a scabbard behind his shoulder and a sling for his arrow. There’s some extra fine sculpting in the zipper and I love the way his collar sits all folded up around his neck. But what the heck, Hasbro… we’re back to pins in the joints?

The head sculpt here is a pretty good likeness to Sean Gunn, although I don’t think they got his eyes quite right and the facial hair needed to be a touch more pronounced. Still, I like it a lot and it looks exceptionally good in profile. The fin is recreated beautifully with some nice panel lines and details. It’s also pretty gross how it sprouts out of his head like that.

The sheath behind the shoulder holds a tiny little knife, which his right hand can hold pretty well.

Kraglin’s other accessory is the arrow, which includes an energy trail to show it zipping through the air. The effect is very well done with a clear red plastic trail, but I really wish they had included a second arrow without the trail as well. It would have been a cheap and easy accessory that would have went a long way. Still, I like some of the poses you can do with the effect part arrow, so that’s cool. And that brings us to…

Cosmo the Space Dog! Usually I like my Build-A-Figures to be big figures that wouldn’t fit in a normal Legends sized box, but I can’t deny I’m happy to have Cosmo. There are actually nine separate pieces here which include the four legs, the tail, the body, the head, and two pieces for the space helmet, which does open and close. There’s something about animal legs that don’t always translate well to rotating ball joints, but these work OK. The suit looks great with some sculpted rumples and various bits of vintage space gear.

I had a lot of trouble getting the clear dome on the helmet to work, but eventually I got there. That may have just been me being an idiot. The head sculpt here is really quite fantastic for the first doggo in Marvel Legends. The sculpted fur looks really good as does the little flash of teeth in the corner of her jowls. The eyes are also excellent. Cosmo is a good dog!

And that’s the first complete wave of Marvel Legends for me this year! See how that works? I enjoyed Guardians 3 and that made me want this wave. Meanwhile there are absolutely no other MCU projects, film or otherwise that are even getting any of my interest. And with Hasbro dipping into stuff like Amadeus Cho Hulk for a Build-A-Figure, there’s little chance I’m going to be picking up any other current Legends waves. I still have some unopened older figures, and I may get to some of those this year, but with this Guardians 3 wave behind me, Legends is likely going to fall off the radar for a while now.

Jun 28 2023

Indiana Jones Adventure Series (The Last Crusade): Indy, Kazim, and Donovan by Hasbro

The fifth Indiana Jones film hits theaters this weekend, and I’m still debating whether I want to see it in the theater or just wait for streaming. I wish I was more excited about it, but between its hugely troubled production history and the fact that even the trailer and John Williams score couldn’t get me excited, I’m just not feeling it at all. And that’s saying something since Raiders of the Lost Ark remains one of my all time favorite movies. But enough about all that, we’re here today to talk about action figures and The Last Crusade. It was the first Indy flick I was old enough to see on my own and I thought it did a great job toning down the darker themes of the second and embracing more of the rip-roaring adventure of the first. Throw Sean Connery into the mix, and you’ve just got a case of pure movie magic.

Hasbro released three figures so far based on Indy’s third outing. These were each stand alone releases not tied to any Build-An-Artifact gimmick. I’m also pretty sure these were each exclusive to various retailers. I was going to pass on these, as I don’t consider any of them to be absolute must-have releases… well, maybe one… but when it comes to Indiana Jones toys , I guess I’m an easy mark. The packaging is the same as what we saw with the Build-An-Ark Wave, so let’s just jump in and start with Indy himself.

This release was referred to as Professor Jones, but it’s really just the gray suit he wore while traveling to Venice. Obviously, this is not the most exciting looking action figure out there, but I’m surprised at how much I’ve taken to it. I think the pants and sleeves do look a little chunky, but overall the suit is executed pretty well, with the usual soft plastic vest and sleeves sculpted on the arms. The vest under the coat looks really nice, as does the striping on the shirt and the perfect bowtie. Bowties are cool! The outfit is rounded out with his brown leather shoes. There’s nothing extraordinary here, but it all looks pretty good.

The head sculpt is solid and this is the first time we’re getting Indy with no hat in this line. There’s some things I like about this portrait more than the regular Indy head, and I dig how prominent they made the scar on his chin.

Indy comes with three accessories, and surprisingly none of them are weapons! The first is the Grail Diary wrapped as a mail parcel. It’s simple enough, but well done with a sculpted string and some postage markings on one side. He can hold it pretty well in either hand. “I should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers!”

Next up is the rather grizzly makeshift torch that he constructed in the Venice sewer using a human bone. I love this piece and the flame effect looks really good. You could probably use this accessory in a number of different Further Adventures scenes as you play with your Indy figures!

And finally, you get one of the Grail Markers in the form of Sir Richard’s shield, and this piece is absolutely gorgeous. The large kite shield includes the inscriptions on the front with red and white paint, and a rather shabby looking back showing some rust and wear. The shield actually has two arm straps, so Indy could wield it like an actual shield, which would have been cool to see in that sequence. All in all, I think Hasbro delivered a solid figure here with all the right accessories to push it over the edge. Now let’s check out Kazim!

Kazim, member of The Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword was a pretty cool side character. Having a secret organization designed to protect the artifact Indy was after was a new and interesting idea for the third adventure. And I have to admit, I’m amazed that we got a 6-inch scale figure of Kazim, because we didn’t even get him in Hasbro’s last 3 3/4-inch line, and that was pretty extensive. Kazim sports a striped double-breasted suit with a rose on his lapel and a sculpted collar and necktie under it. The suit looks a little puffy, but not too bad.

To me, the portrait looks a little more like a caricature than realistic. I can’t quite place the actor’s name but his fez is familiar. YEAH, I WENT THERE, DEAL WITH IT!!! Still, the face has a lot of character and I like the deep creases around his nose and the bushy mustache. To be honest, I was most excited about this figure because of the little arsenal he comes with, so let’s check out the guns!

First off, you get an awesome little C96 Mauser, which seemed to be the official weapon of The Order. I love the sculpt and the finish on this little pistol and it’s definitely a cool weapon to circulate around the Indy figures. The barrel is extremely thin and fragile though, so I gotta be really careful if I bag this figure with his accessories. I may wind up folding it in a piece of cardboard.

Next up is Mauser bolt action rifle, which looks to be a mish-mash of different styles. Even so, I think the detail in the sculpt is quite nice on this one, but it feels rather undersized to me. Even if it was intended to be a carbine, I think it would still be too small and besides, the barrel would look different. My only other grip here is that a little woodgrain sculpt or paint would have looked nice. Unfortunately, this one is a thumbs down for me. Although I was impressed that he could get into a pretty decent firing pose with it.

But all is redeemed with this sweet MP28. Yes, the sculpt feels a little toony and again I’d like to see some woodgrain on the stock, but I loved seeing this gun in action during the boat chase and I’m thrilled to have a version in this scale for my little plastic peoples. Kazim is a fun figure, but I probably should have waited until he turned up at clearance. Moving on to our last figure… Walter Donovan.

Donovan was a pretty cool villain for the third film, and I’ll admit I didn’t see his heel turn coming, but then I was a dumb kid when I saw this movie so that’s my excuse. It probably doesn’t hurt that I absolutely love Julian Glover and would you believe this is my third figure bearing his likeness? Obviously one of the others is General Veers from The Empire Strikes Back, and the third is Count Scarlioni from Doctor Who! Donovan comes sporting his desert expedition outfit, which consists of a military style coat, belted at the waist and some flared military-style trousers with high boots. The sculpting on the costume looks great and his black shirt and striped tie look really sharp.

The head sculpt is… OK. I don’t see a whole lot of Glover in it and I probably couldn’t guess who it was from just the head. It would probably go like this, “Who’s that?” “Julian Glover!” “Oooooh, right. I see it now.” I think the portrait is perhaps a little younger looking than it should be based on his appearance in the film. There’s a bit of slop on the gray paint along his hairline, but all in all I’m OK with what we got here.

You also get an alternate “He chose poorly” head, which is really cool. It’s not as mind-blowingly gruesome as Toht’s melting face from the first wave of figures, but it’s still pretty gnarly and a very nice bonus.

Donovan comes with three accessories, the first of which is a gun, which is a kind of piss-poor approximation of his Walther PPK. It’s just kind of chunky and bland and I don’t like it. But hey, it’s a gun.

Next is the piece of the Grail Marker tablet, and boy did Hasbro do a beautiful job on this piece. The lettering is so sharp and legible it just looks fantastic.

And finally, we have one of the false Grails that Elsa chose for Donovan to drink from. It’s a nice little sculpt and a pretty good representation of the screen used prop.

All three of these are pretty decent figures, but I think I would say that only Donovan is what I would consider a must-have, because it’s nice to have at least one villain from The Last Crusade. We did get Ernst Vogel in Hasbro’s last 3 3/4-inch line, so maybe it’s possible we’ll see him again, and Hasbro has already revealed that we’ll be getting an Elsa Schneider figure in a future wave, so that’s cool. Professor Indy wins me over with some excellent accessories, and while I like two of Kazim’s three guns, he’s the one I could take or leave. There was one more Exclusive released in this assortment, but it was Club Obi-Wan Indy from Temple of Doom. I haven’t picked that one up yet, but I probably will, and if so I’ll probably check him out with the rest of the Temple of Doom figures when they finally ship.

Jun 26 2023

Marvel Legends (GotG v3): Nebula and Rocket by Hasbro

It’s another Marvel Monday this week as I am working my way through the somewhat recently released Build-A-Russian-Space-Pooch Wave of Marvel Legends. So far I’ve checked out Star-Lord, Drax, and Mantis from the BAF assortment, as well as the Deluxe Groot, which is admittedly a peripheral release but still part of the gang. Today I’m finishing up the Guardians proper with Nebula and Rocket, and that will just leave two more figures to go, plus the BAF.

I’ve said my piece about this packaging. I like it well enough but I’ll also be happy to see the end to these windowless boxes. It also baffles me as to why Hasbro didn’t list the figures in this wave on the back like they used to do, but I bought the wave all in one shot, so I guess it didn’t matter. As for the characters, let’s be honest, it Guardians 3 was Rocket’s movie, and perhaps even his trilogy all along, if a certain line of otter dialogue is to be believed. As for Nebula, I’ve really enjoyed her a lot more ever since Endgame and it was interesting to see her get a bigger role in this one, even over her sister Gamora, who is conspicuously absent from this wave of figures. Anyway… let’s start with Nebula!

It’s Hasbro, so I was expecting Nebula to share a body with Mantis, and that is certainly the case. Still, considering the amount of new sculpting in this wave, I can’t say as I really blame them. I loved this uniformed body on Mantis, and I love it here just the same. There’s some excellent sculpted detail in the costume and the blue and red just pop so beautifully. The belt is a separate sculps from the body and it’s nice and snug around the waist.

Of course, you do get a newly sculpted arm with some really cool detail that looks like some kind of synthetic muscular weave. Like the regular arm, it’s pinless in the elbow and has a really tight bend which I love.

The head sculpt is excellent and reflects the differences from the last time we saw her in the Legends line as part of the Mantis BAF wave. The sculpt here is a little soft but it works fine. Still, I’m not sure I like it more than the metallic paint and Borg-like eye business going on with the previous release. Still, that’s apples and oranges, because we’re dealing with two different versions fo the character. I’ll just say what we got here is fine and leave it at that.

Nebula makes out really well in the accessories department, as she comes with no less than three weapons. The first is this little pistol, which is a cool design, but probably the least interesting of the weapons. Also, it’s so small I almost wound up throwing it out with the tissue paper it was wrapped in.

Next up is a sword attachment for her cybernetic arm. This one just pegs in by replacing the hand for and gives off some awesome Terminator 2 vibes. The sculpt carries on the cyber-sinew pattern of the arm and has some orange paint on the edges. The sword really makes me wish they had given her a right gun hand so that she could wield both gun and sword, but it’s still pretty cool.

And finally, you get a nice big rifle. It’s cast in gray plastic and I love it. She can hold it really well too. I wish they had painted the hole in the barrel black, but I might go ahead and remedy that with a sharpie. Ok, let’s move on to Rocket Racoon!

YES! He finally uses is full name in the movie, and embraces his inner Racooness, which was fun to hear. And yes, this is easily the best Legends Rocket I’ve seen yet. Plus, he looks so damn adorable in his little uniform! Just about all the details survived being shrunk down to racoon size, including the Guardians emblem on his chest and the belt. The colors still look great here although the red is a little more muted. The uniform even has a hole in the butt where his floofy tail juts out.

The articulation here is pretty impressive for such a tiny body. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. The hips are ball jointed, there are swivels in the thighs, and ball joints under the chest and in the neck. He can be a little tough to balance on his tiny feet, but you can always use the tail for support in a pinch.

The head sculpt is by far the best we’ve seen for Rocket in this scale. I’m blown away by the amount of detail in his exposed teeth.

Rocket comes with one accessory and that’s his the huge blaster that he’s been carrying since the first movie. This is such a cool and complex design. It’s also made to work well with Rocket’s tiny hands and has a loop in the stock that goes around and under his shoulder.

With the core team of Guardians assembled, I have to say this has been a fantastic wave. I was a little hesitant to pre-order these as opposed to waiting for clearance, but I’m glad I pulled the trigger, because these are going to get a prime display spot on one of my shelves. But we still have two more figures in the wave to check out and the BAF, so we’ll swing back for one more Marvel Monday next week to have a look at those!

Jun 19 2023

Marvel Legends (GotG v3): Drax and Mantis by Hasbro

Hey, it’s another Marvel Monday, how about that! A couple of weeks ago I started my look at the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 figures with Star-Lord and Deluxe Groot, and today I’m pushing things along with Drax and Mantis!

This wave comes in the fully enclosed boxes, which Hasbro promises will be going away soon in favor of a return to the window boxes. I actually really like the look of these boxes. You get some nice character art on the side panel and the photos have been matching the figures pretty well. My only real complaint here is that it doesn’t show all the figures in the wave on the back like the window packages did. I’m not sure why they dropped that here, but it can be confusing if you aren’t sure which figures you’re looking for to build the Space Doggo. It just seems like weird omission. Let’s start with Drax!

It’s still kind of weird to see Drax wearing a shirt. I was half expecting him to yell, “Your flimsy cloth materials cannot contain me!” and rip it off at some point in the movie. But as I said last time, I absolutely adore these uniforms and they look great on the figures. Drax is as chonky as ever and the body uses an interesting mix of pinned joints for the knees but pinless joints for the elbows. The detail in the uniform is quite nice with just about every detail included in the sculpt rather than just being painted on. I particularly love the raised bronze Guardians insignia in the center of the chest. And the colors here are to die for. The vibrant blue and red mixed with the black just looks so damn snappy! All the usual articulation is here and all the joints feel great.

This is undoubtedly Hasbro’s best Drax head sculpt, but that should be no surprise since it’s been six years since we got the last MCU version of Drax in the Legends line. The likeness to Batista in the make up is spot on and his facial markings are part of the sculpt as well as painted in. The expression is pretty neutral, but everything about this portrait works for me.

Drax comes with his fighting knives, which have been included with each of the two prior releases of the character. I’m not sure if these are the exact same sculpts, but they look very similar. They are cast in pale gray plastic and have details sculpted into the grips as well as some markings on the blades. And despite the new uniform, I was happy to see that he still has the scabbards in the boots to stow them when he’s not in full-on stabby-stabby mode.

Drax is just another fantastic figure in this wave, and I have absolutely zero complaints. Sure, it’s a departure from his iconic look, but what can I say? I just love the uniforms! With the price hike forever in the back of my mind, this is one figure I did not mind paying the full $25 to get. The sculpt and paint are both top notch and pretty much everything you get here is brand new. Moving on to Mantis…

Here we get our first look at the ladies version of the uniform and once again it looks great! The finish on Mantis’ outfit is more matte than Drax’s which has a bit of a sheen to it. I’d also say that her red striping is a little less vibrant too. Neither issue is enough to bother me when they’re standing side by side, but worth pointing out nonetheless. Mantis sports pinless joints in both her knees and elbows, and I’m happy to see both double hinges in the elbows and swivels in the biceps. She also has a ball joint under the chest instead of the ab crunch hinge we see on Drax and Star-Lord.

And like Drax, we get a brand new head sculpt for Mantis. It’s still crazy to think that she was a Build-A-Figure when last released. This new noggin is a huge improvement over the last one, which wasn’t bad. You get a softer and more natural face with a far more realistic skin tone. The eyes are also phenomenal this time around and I like the sculpting on her pronounced eyelashes. The hair looks good and has some green highlights, and her antenna have a slight lilt to them. This is all around great work!

Mantis does stumble a bit because of her complete lack of extras. Yup, apart from the Cosmo BAF part, she has no accessories whatsoever. Now, I can’t off hand think of any accessories that she should have come with, but maybe at least give her an extra pair of hands. The hands she comes with are very specific with the right hand gesturing with two fingers, as if she’s focusing her telepathy, and the left hand just relaxed. She’s a beautiful figure, but at the $25 price point, she just needed something extra to justify the cost.

With four figures down, I still have four more to go before we can put together the Russian Space Pooch, but I have to say that I am really digging these figures a lot so far. Sure, I was a little lukewarm on Groot, but maybe he’s growing on me. HA! These figures are definitely helping me to come out of the general malaise I’ve felt about Marvel Legends for most of last year, and I’m genuinely excited to open up the next pair so let’s shoot for another Marvel Monday next week and check out Rocket and Nebula!

Jun 14 2023

Dungeons & Dragons (Golden Archive) Xanathar by Hasbro

I don’t think the Dungeons & Dragons movie was anywhere near the marketing hit that Hasbro was hoping for. They barely got most of the figures out by the time the movie had come and gone. I liked the Honor Among Thieves a lot, but I wasn’t interested in the figures. I am, however, especially happy that Hasbro seems to be utilizing its D&D license beyond the movie tie in, because the subject of today’s review shows there’s a lot of potential here!

Enter Xanathar! The mysterious crime lord of Waterdeep. Art Connoisseur, Gourmand, and Lover of Goldfish. Oh, and he also happens to be a Beholder, one of the most iconic beasties of D&D lore. When the credits rolled on the movie without a Beholder making an appearance, I didn’t know whether to shout in disappointment or admire the restraint. Nonetheless, here we are with a Xanathar figure and you could knock me over with a preverbal +1 Feather of Shocking! Xanathar comes in a fully enclosed box with an awkard slice taken out of the upper right corner. There’s some wonderful art as well as some pictures of the toy itself. He comes wrapped in tissue and there’s some assembly required, as you have to plug in each of those eye stalks to get him ready for display!

And with the full eye stalk installation complete, I have to say this is an absolutely fantastic looking figure with a lot of potential in cross compatibility. There’s some superb detail in the sculpt, which includes scaly, somewhat reptilian looking skin. He even has a pair of subtympanic shields like an iguana, in this case situated on each side behind his main eyeball. There are horns jutting out, ridges running down his back, and plenty of leathery creases and folds to the skin that all look great. Other great little touches include the intricately sculpted gold bands placed around some of his eye stalks, one of which is a Ring of Proof Against Detection. He even has a sculpted golden ring through a piercing on his bottom lip. Each of the eye stalks are connected with ball joints, so while there isn’t any articulation in the stalks themselves, there’s a decent range of motion where they meet the body. The paint is also excellent with a pale blue on the upper part of the body gradually becoming yellow for the face and undercarriage.

And wow, is there a tremendous amount of detail in his mouth, which can be placed on full display by opening his hinged jaws, and boy is it gross in there! In addition to the rows of jagged pointy teeth, he’s got pink gums, and the papillae on his tongue are fully realized in what is an incredible sculpt! So what’s that translucent thing up at the roof of his mouth? Well let’s talk eyeball!

Xanathar’s one big eye is very well done with a glassy lens and a very detailed retina. My only complaint here is that I wish the eye were opened a bit more. It’s quite narrow and while it does make for a somewhat devilish look, I would have loved to see that eyeball showcased more prominently. The eyeball is fully articulated and can be manipulated via that translucent lever-knob thing up at the roof of his mouth. Fiddling with this control can make his eye turn left and right and even up and down. It’s a lot of fun!

Xanathar comes with two accessories: A stand and his fish bowl. The stand is a pile of gold with a concave top for him to rest in and it works pretty well. It’s also a fantastic sculpt with individually sculpted coins and a skull and other pieces of treasure peeking out from the pile. I’d also bet I can find a lot of crossover uses for this pile of wealth with some of my other fantasy lines. With that having been said, I think it was a huge oversight not to include some kind of translucent stand to make it look like Xanathar is levitating.

The fish bowl may confuse some, but Xanathar did indeed have a pet fish named Sylgar. It’s actually likely that he had several fish named Sylgar, with his attendants swapping out new live fish for the deceased ones, perhaps without the Beholder knowing. This is a fun accessory with Sylgar appearing to float inside the bowl thanks to a translucent plastic stand… JUST LIKE XANATHAR SHOULD HAVE HAD!

Xanathar is intended to be roughly 6-inch scale, which would make him compatible with the Honor Among Thieves figures, but he also scales incredibly well with Hasbro’s own figures from the D&D cartoon. I also think the aesthetic fits really well too and they look great together! While I didn’t have time to include a comparison shot, I think he’s scales a little too small for NECA’s D&D figures or for Mythic Legions, but heck it still kind of works.

On the flipside, I think he looks fine with smaller scaled figures. If you like your Beholders huge, he’s pretty damn intimidating beside a Vitruvian HACKS figure. And I think he fits in perfectly with the old LJN AD&D figures. I don’t know how many more D&D figures we’ll get out of Hasbro so it’s fun to explore the crossover potential.

Make no mistake, Xanathar is a bizarre release. It’s the kind of stand out piece you might expect to get from a robust and successful toyline. Instead, he’s one of a handful of releases that exist outside the cartoon and the movie. With that being said, he is a fantastic figure, and I think he was well worth the $50 price tag. My guess is that lack of demand will mean he’ll turn up at a discount eventually, but I wasn’t willing to take the chance, and I really wanted to encourage Hasbro to do more figures like this. I love him!