Aug 18 2016

Transformers Titans Return: Hyperfire & Blurr by Hasbro

It’s hard to believe Combiner Wars has come and gone already, eh? No, actually it’s not. While I enjoyed the line quite a bit, seeing those same molds over and over was beginning to wear out its welcome. Thankfully, we have a brand new line coming in, and like Combiner Wars, I’m happy to say that it is slavishly beholden to Generation 1. I hope you like Headmasters, because that is indeed the main gimmick of Titans Return. I know, these figures are old news to a lot of people, but they’re still hard to find in my area and I’m quite excited to be looking at my first one. So I’ll warn you ahead of time I’m going to talk about this figure a lot.

Alas, the packaging hasn’t changed all that much. It’s still mostly black with Transformers running vertically up the side. This overall design grew on me a little over the last year or so, but I was hoping for a change up. It still bears the Generations insignia in the upper right hand corner and the cards still feature character specific art at the top. Unfortunately, the art here is not really grabbing me. I appreciate that it’s emphasizing the Headmaster gimmick, but it just looks goofy to me. Also, the fact that I have to title these Features with the Headmaster’s name first like the actual figure is an afterthought is going to irk me every time. In the end, I’ve never even been tempted to keep carded Transformers packaging, so it’s not a big deal to me. Into the rubbish bin with you, foul packaging! OK, let’s start with the alt mode…

Hey, did I mention it’s Blurr? I love Blurr! Always have. He was one of my favorite characters from the movie and post-movie season of the Sunbow series. This is about as close to G1 Blurr as we’ve had in forever and it’s making me very happy. The vehicle is a beautiful homage to the G1 toy right down to the engine/exhaust/fin thing on the back and the gap behind the cockpit. It holds together tightly, rolls along fine, and the robot mode’s gun mounts under the nose of the car. As far as alt modes go, this one is simple, you can kind of see what’s going to happen with the transformation, and all that is just fine with me. I adore this.

The coloring is solid as well. The bulk of the car is cast in an ever so slightly metallic blue plastic. You get some gray, as well as a little minty blue all of which conspire to replicate those instantly recognizable colors from the G1 toy. The brilliant silver paint used for the gun is easily the stand out attraction here. An Autobot emblem on the hood and a translucent blue tinted cockpit helps seal the deal.

Blurr’s little chum is Hyperfire, which is a name that sounds more suited to a Targetmaster than even the name of G1 Blurr’s Targetmaster, Haywire. As a kid buying toys, I was already growing out of Transformers by the time the Headmasters hit. I enjoy the gimmick now, but I think I would have been confused by it back then. I didn’t want to worry about how that whole symbiosis worked and who’s personality was who’s. I just wanted robots that changed into stuff and fired lasers at each other. Anyway, my rambling should tell you that I don’t have a whole lot to say about this little guy. He’s cool for what he is: A very tiny robot that turns into a head and can also ride in Blurr’s alt mode. His legs are fused together, but they can bend together at the hips and knees. His shoulders are jointed, and since his little head is also the connection to the robot, it is also articulated. Hasbro made a valiant effort at painting this tiny guy, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s got a giant screw right in the middle of his chest.

Hyperfire can indeed sit comfortably in Blurr’s car mode and the cockpit closes perfectly. I would dare say that my favorite thing about the Headmaster gimmick is having these little guys to interact with the vehicles. Speaking of which, those pegs beside the cockpit are there so you can attach more Headmaster riders via the peg holes in their tiny feet. Oh yes, Blurr also has a second alt mode, and to show it off, I’m bringing in one of the individually packed Headmasters, Nightbeat.

You basically take the hood section, flip it upside down and peg it into the side to form an outrigger with a cannon. This is not the most clever of designs, but I have to say, I love this concept probably more than it deserves. Something about this just reminds me of the old Micronauts toys, where you could pull pieces off of them and remake them into different things. Blurr’s sidecar doesn’t quite measure up to that level of complexity, but I really appreciate what they did here in terms of added play value. Well, enough of the alt modes… can Blurr’s robot mode live up the same level of ungodly G1 goodness?

Yes it can. There isn’t a whole lot to transforming Blurr, but damn do I dig the results. Like the alt mode, this robot mode just pulls at all the right nostalgia strings for me. This figure is as Blurr a Blurr as we’ve had in the modern era and I am in love with him. A lot of early reports have scared me about how loose the joints on these figures feel, but I’m fortunate that my Blurr has no such issues. He’s perfectly proportioned and there is an impressive amount of sculpted detail on him. But as complex as some of the detail is the overall feel of this figure is positively elegant in his simplicity.

Unfortunately that simplicity follows through on his coloring, where it is less of a selling point. There’s precious little paint on this figure and in robot mode he shows a lot less variety than in his car mode. What’s here is good. I really like the way they painted the look of the original toy’s stickers above the feet. You also get a little of the lighter blue trim around the cockpit, but the bulk of that coloring winds up on his back and the backs of his forearms. Other than that, it’s just a whole lot of that metallic blue plastic. His deco (or lack there of) is not unattractive to me, but arguably on the bland side. It’s also worth noting that there is an obvious place on his lower chest intended for an Autobot insignia, but Hasbro didn’t bother printing it in there. That bugs me more than anything else, and I’ll likely wind up digging through my sheets of repro stickers to find one to put there.

Blurr has a hood-shield similar to his G1 counterpart. I was never a fan of that design and I’m delighted to say that the piece on this figure can store on his back to fill out the torso a little more. The result is no obvious car-part shield and no extra part lying around. The silver gun can be held in either hand and goes a long way to spruce up the otherwise sameness of the coloring here.

Like all Headmasters, Hyperfire just rolls up into a ball to form the head and it works just fine. The head sculpt is great. It’s undeniably the Blurr that I grew up with and the head stays together even when I manipulate it on the neck. For people who aren’t into the whole Headmaster thing, I don’t think the look of the head will be an issue, other than having to attach it after transformation.

And yes, all Headmasters will work on this guy. I pulled out Nightbeat once again to illustrate. The idea of swapping heads is a big one in Titans Return, but not one that really interests me a lot. Heaving a Headmaster for Nightbeat doesn’t make me want to put it on Blurr, it makes me want to have a proper body for Nightbeat. And if there were such a body and the head was called Nightbeat, than why isn’t Blurr’s head called Blurr? See… this is exactly the sort of shit that would have fried my child brain if I had these way back when. Granted, I seem to recall that in the original concept, the Nebulons were bonded to specific robots, so this perverse practice of head-swapping wasn’t possible. Nonetheless, I bet this is fun for the kids and I’ll admit to already own eight of the individually packaged Headmasters, four Autobots and four Decepticons. I will eventually do a very quick Feature on them when I run out of the regular figures to talk about.

You need only look at how long I droned on about a simple Deluxe Class figure, to know that I really love this toy. In fact, apart from the lack of paint apps in robot mode, I’d say he’s very nearly perfect to me and he’ll definitely be replacing that Blurr that was recycled from Drift a few years back. This is my new Classics/Generations Blurr and I find that he even scales fairly well with Classics Rodimus and most of the gang from the Generations line as well. He was a great choice for me to usher in this new line and I can already tell that I’m going to be into Titan Returns in a very deep way.

Aug 15 2016

Marvel Legends (Juggernaut Wave): Havok and Iceman by Hasbro

It’s Week Four of my Monday romps through the recent X-Men Wave of Marvel Legends and today I’m knocking out two figures in one Feature. No disrespect to either of these characters or figures, but I’m seriously backlogged on opening my Legends toys and with eight figures plus the Build-A-Figure this wave is a tall drink of water. I’m not complaining, Hasbro, keep them coming! In the end, I think I can do justice to both Havok and Iceman in one shot, because while they are both excellent, they are relatively simple figures.

Once again, the packaging for this wave feels special to me. The bold X-Men logo on the front and the X-symbol on the top panel advertise a wave that given the current state of the comics, shouldn’t exist. The yellow and black deco is striking and you get some beautiful character art on the side panels. Normally, I don’t mind tossing out my Marvel Legends packages, but in this case, I wish I had the space to keep them. Havok and Iceman are two more examples of the great character selection in this wave. Both received the Universe 3.75-inch treatment, but it’s long past time they landed in the modern Legends 6-inch line. Let’s start with Havok…

Havok features his modern look, or at least it’s one of the most recent costumes that I recognize. Granted, I know this look best from the pages of Cable & X-Force and that’s got to be nearly five years old already, so I guess modern is a relative term. Dark and simple is the style on display here and while I dig it, I do prefer the look with the lit lines feeding into his chest. Nearly the entire costume is conveyed through minimal paint on a black buck. In fact, from the neck down the only original sculpting here are the cuffs of his silver gauntlets. You get some more silver striping on his boots, and partially around his waist. The costume is wrapped up with the blue emblem on his chest. This version of Havok was an easy figure for Hasbro to do, no doubt, but it still looks solid.

The head sculpt is quite good. Alex sports a stern and determined look, like maybe he’s sick of Scott’s shit again. The paint lines between the flesh and the black mask are sharp, and the silver bands on his head are crisp.

A rundown of the articulation here shows pretty standard stuff for the modern Legends line. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, have swivels in the thighs and lower legs, and the ankles feature both hinges and lateral rockers. The torso has a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch hinge, and the neck is both ball jointed and hinged. He’s lots of fun to play with, but damn, those ratchets in his shoulders are tight!

Havok comes with a pair of effect parts to simulate his ability to shoot plasma blasts. They’re similar to the hocus-pocus effects we got with Scarlet Witch and Dr. Strange, but new sculpts with a subtle conical shame. I think they look damn good, and coming from someone who usually just tosses effect parts into the dreaded and bottomless Tote of Forgotten Accessories, that’s saying a lot! Moving on to Iceman…

Where Alex Summers got by with minimal sculpting and minimal paint, Bobby Drake gets it done with a surprising amount of new sculpting and virtually no paint at all! Hasbro wisely went the translucent route with this figure, something that they haven’t done in Legends since the Ghost figure in The SDCC Thunderbolds Exclusive set. I love translucent figures! Do I love photographing them? Oh, God no! When I do they always look like piss. In this case, the plastic is a little blued and a little chalky and it looks absolutely fantastic… in person. Honest, you’ll have to trust me on this one. The buck here is recycled from one of the recent Spider-Man releases, but you get new hands, forearms, and lower legs with some jagged ice effects, as well bare feet, which appear to be new pieces. There’s also a removable chunk of ice that plugs into his back.

A bitchin’ new head sculpt with white painted eyes rounds out this beautiful figure quite nicely. He’s also got a great little smirk.

The articulation here is almost identical to what we got with Havok. Iceman loses the extra swivels in the lower legs, but gains the lateral shoulder crunches. It’s a worthy tradeoff!

Havok and Iceman are great additions to a wave that is so good it’s downright… uncanny? It’s true that Hasbro didn’t break the bank on Havok. He’s a simple painted buck with a new head and that’s really all he needed to be. Iceman, on the other hand… well, I wasn’t expecting as much unique sculpting to go into him and the results are quite spectacular. With only three figures left to go, I’m beginning to believe this wave can do no wrong. Next Monday, I’ll be checking out another of the X-Ladies!

Aug 8 2016

Marvel Legends (Juggernaut Wave): Kitty Pryde by Hasbro

It’s the third week of my romp through Marvel Legends’ recent X-Men Wave and today I’m checking out the first of the three X-Ladies in this assortment, Kitty Pryde! She’s always been a fun character for me, and it’s particularly intriguing to follow her growth as a student of Xavier’s back in the day to a full fledged Guardian of the Galaxy now. As a certain villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe once said, “You’ll. Never. See. This. Coming…” and he’d be right! It would have been impossible for me to predict the path that Kitty has traveled. She’s always made out pretty well in the comics, but not so much in the TV and Film world. I’ll bet she’s still bitter about getting shafted in the Days of Future Past movie.

Here’s the lovely Juggernaut Wave packaging. You get a branded X-Men symbol on the top flap and spiffy character art on the side panels. I like how nobody in this wave has to share a slot with others, hence every figure’s name appears on the bottom of the front panel. The tray here is absolutely packed with stuff, from the giant Juggernaut arm, that probably uses almost as much plastic as Kitty, to the Lockheed figure, and a very nice bonus head for your Red Onslaught BAF from a few waves back. I’m going to let Kitty phase herself out of the package and we’ll check her out!

So, I’ll say straight away that this is a fantastic looking figure and features her more contemporary look, which also happens to be my favorite. Granted, there’s a lot to choose from. Hasbro could do a massive boxed set based on Kitty’s gimmick of wardrobe changes. This one, however captures the feel of the original black and yellow design, with the added style of the V-neck and a modern belt. It translates beautifully into this figure thanks to some sharp paint and the original sculpting on upper torso and gauntlets.

The portrait is excellent. It’s become a common gripe that Hasbro can’t do female head sculpts any justice, but Marvel Legends has been proof positive that it simply isn’t true. Sure, you’ve got your Madam Hydras, but most of the 6-inch Marvel ladies have been great and Kitty here is another example of that. The face sculpt is pretty and I really love how they did her pony tail. The paint on the facial features is excellent, although the paint for the hair doesn’t always line up with the sculpt. Still, not too shabby overall.

The articulation here is everything you might expect in a modern Legends lady. That includes rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. There are ball joints in the legs, double hinges in the knees, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. You get swivels in the thighs, but alas, none in the biceps. Finally there’s a ball joint just under the chest and both a ball joint and hinge in the neck. It’s good, but I do have a few quibbles. The lack of swivels in the waist and biceps is annoying, and the elbow hinges don’t have as much range of motion as I would have liked.

Of course, Kitty comes with Lockheed and he is a fantastic little sculpt, cast in a beautiful metallic purple plastic. He’s basically just a squishy little guy and while I dig him a lot, I wish Hasbro had done a few things about him a little differently. His feet are flat as if he’s supposed to stand, but his tail curls down below his feet, so he can’t stand, at least not on his own. The idea here is that the tail is supposed to curl around Kitty’s neck so he can stand on her shoulder. It works OK, but I think they should have taken a page from Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo Kitty Pryde and made it so Lockheed could better clip onto the arm.

The other accessory in the package is the Magneto-style head that is meant to replace the Red Skull head on the Red Onslaught Build-A-Figure, and it is indeed a welcome inclusion. I can’t recall Hasbro ever bundling a piece to improve a BAF from a previous wave, but they were promising that this was coming since before the Red Onslaught Wave shipped and they sure did make good on that promise! The Red Skull head was a damn fine sculpt, but to be honest, now that I have this head, the old one will probably never see the light of day again.

Drax: “Quill, your new girlfriend is a liar. She is not a cat made of shadows.”

Three figures into this X-Men Wave and Hasbro has yet to falter as Kitty takes her place besides Wolverine and Cable as another top notch release. The Toy Biz Kitty was a solid enough effort for her time, but if I still owned mine, she’d be getting replaced right now by Hasbro’s sublime new effort. Is this the Wave that can do no wrong? Check back next Monday as I double down with a look at both Iceman and Havoc.

Aug 1 2016

Marvel Legends (Juggernaut Wave): Cable by Hasbro

It’s Week Two of my jaunt through the new X-Men Wave of Marvel Legends and for this Marvel Monday, I’ve decided to rip open Cable. Now, what we have here is one of those Good News, Bad News, Good News scenarios. The Good News? He’s Cable! And at last in the Legends scale! The Bad News? It’s not really the version of Cable I would have preferred. The Good News? He’s still an excellent figure! But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with a quick look at the packaging…

I commented last time about how much I dig these boxes with the matching yellow accents and boy do I! Along with the snazzy coloring, the character art on the side panels really make them pop and they look amazing collected together as a set. If I weren’t so hard pressed for space as it is, I would probably display this set packaged and on the wall, but alas my walls and closets and shelves are busting at the seams, so I’m going to have to be content admiring the boxes in these pictures after I toss them all. But before I sadly toss the packaging, let me get the stuff inside out first!

So, yeah, this isn’t really my Cable. This Cable does not scream “bodyslide by two” hijinx with Deadpool to me. This Cable hails from a mini-series from about four years ago. It’s an odd choice to be sure, but knowing Hasbro’s need to recycle parts in this line, they may have been going for a look that they could work with. And while I haven’t looked at the Civil War Wave yet, I’m seeing a bit of the Nuke figure in this one. Ideal? No! Am I OK with it? Yuppers! Because Cable here, no matter the version, is a damn nice figure. One of my favorite things about him is the bulky armor, which features some lovely texturing and scattered bullet holes. Also the segmented metal arm is just gorgeous!

This is also a suitably bulky buck. Even without the barrel chested armor, he’s got a nice presence to him. There’s plenty of detail in the pants and boots. He’s packing dual thigh pouches, a slew of belt pouches. POUCHES! He’s clearly trying to make Deadpool jealous. The shin and knee armor is colored to match his chest armor and also features some dings and bullet holes. The deco on him is nothing outrageously special, but the quality of the paint is superb. That silver paint just can’t be beat. I also love the tat on his right shoulder.

And the portrait!!! Hasbro wasn’t fooling around when they sculpted this noggin. This is clearly a character that offered plenty of opportunities for them to shine and they stepped up to the challenge. The stern jaw, broad nose, and grim expression says it all. The paint apps on the scarring and his one organic eye are sharp and clean, and the exposed cybernetic portion of the head is absolutely killer. Again, some great silver paint and amazing detail work in the segmented lining. What’s particularly cool is the detail on the neck goes all the way down into the armor. I have nothing but admiration for the work here.

Cable’s articulation is a little better than I would have expected from such a substantial buck. I was particularly pleased to see the double hinges in the elbows. The arms also feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels in the thighs. The ankles are hinged and feature lateral rockers. The torso has a swivel at the waist and a very generous ball joint buried under the chest armor. The neck has both a hinge and ball joint. The jointing on this figure feels great and he’s been pretty hard for me to put down.

Weapons! It wouldn’t be Cable without an arsenal and this figure comes with two sizable, futuristic guns. The smaller of the two appears to be a new sculpt. If it isn’t, I can’t place where we’ve seen it before. The larger gun is, appropriately enough, the same gun that came with Hope Summers all the way back in the initial wave of the Legends relaunch. This one, however, has the added bonus of an ammo belt that plugs into the bottom of the stock.

In case you can’t tell, I absolutely adore this figure. And that sentiment shouldn’t be taken lightly, as I’m even surprised at myself how the disappointment of this not being Cable’s more conventional look hasn’t overwhelmed me here. The truth is, this is such an amazing looking figure and so much fun to play with, that I’m easily able to overlook what could have been and just really admire the beautiful work that went into what we got. And for the time being, at least I still have an excellent 3 3/4-inch version of proper Cable from the Marvel Universe line a few years back. So far, this Wave is batting two for two. As much as I’m tempted to go with Deadpool next, I think I’ll check out one of the X-Ladies on next week’s Marvel Monday.

Jul 25 2016

Marvel Legends (Juggernaut Wave): Wolverine by Hasbro

It’s time to start a brand new wave of Marvel Legends and I had several to choose from in my backlog. In the interest of being current for once, I’ve decided to skip ahead to the X-Men Wave featuring the Juggernaut Build-A-Figure. Aw, who am I kidding? Being current has nothing to do with it. I just couldn’t wait to start opening these! Looks like the Civil War Giant Man Wave will have to wait, and who knows when I’ll get to look at that Rhino Wave. Ah, X-Men… but where to begin? Considering this is perhaps the finest wave of Legends to date, there was no wrong answer. In the end, I decided to start with Wolverine because he’s the best at what he does!

While the Marvel Legends packaging is always attractive and collector friendly, I’ve never really been motivated to keep any of it until now. A combination of spiffy matching yellow coordination and some kick ass character art on the side panels make these look like something special. Together, these just don’t feel like a normal wave of Legends. With a never-ending flood of Iron Mans, Captain Americas, and Spider-Mans, it’s crazy to think that this is only the second time we’ve seen Logan in Legends since it’s return. And the previous release was part of that now impossible to find Jubilee Wave.

Wolverine comes in his oh-so-classic brown suit, and I wouldn’t have it any other way! I should also point out straightaway how relieved I am that Hasbro didn’t recycle the Dark Wolverine body from a while back. This one suits Logan well, features the lovely pointed flares on the tops of his boots, a solid yellow and brown painted deco, and classic wide red belt. When it comes to the comics, this is The Wolverine that scratches my itch. The only disappointing thing here is that he doesn’t have any claws!

Just kidding! Of course, you get a pair of regular fists and some snikt hands. Did we even need the fists? I can see maybe mixing them up at some point with one fist and one clawed hand held up, but even that’s stretching it. Wolvy needs his claws and while I love to have options, I doubt the fists are going to get much use, other than for fist-bumping Spider-Man. The claws are especially nice and not overly bendy or prone to warping. Although since many of my Legends figures get cycled into Totes now and again, I’m thinking I’ll put the fists on him for that so the claws don’t get all bent up or broken during Logan’s down time.

The portrait here is fairly solid. I think the mask portion looks great, especially the expressive eyes. He truly looks like he’s sick of your shit, bub. The unmasked part of the face is a little on the soft side. It reminds me a bit of some of the softer Captain America sculpts. Not bad, but I think that part could have been better. Oh, I suppose I could complain that there isn’t an unmasked portrait. After all, the Jubilee Wave came with one, but then that figure goes for well over $100 now! In fairness, I think Hasbro could have tossed it in here, but I’m not going to hold that against what is otherwise a fantastic classical figure of a character that was long overdue for an appointment with my Marvel shelf.

The articulation here is top notch. You get all the regular points that we’re used to seeing in Legends. The arms have 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 the thighs and again down int he boots. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. The torso features a swivel at the waist and an ab-crunch hinge. The neck has both a ball joint and a hinge. The big addition are those wonderful shoulder crunches that we see crop up from time to time and they make a big difference! I’ll note that the upper elbow hinge on my figure’s right arm has a bit of a pull to it where the pin connects. It’s not too bad, but I might still pick up a replacement.

This figure hits the spot on every conceivable level. It was well past time we got Logan in the Legends line again (and with actual distribution this time!) especially since it seems like a handful of the A-list heroes have been getting more than their share of figures. Given the current state of The X-Men over at Marvel, it’s kind of odd to see this wave hit now, but you won’t hear me complaining about it. This release is as simple and classic as it gets and I have a feeling he’s a pretty good indicator of the figures I’ll be opening over the next bunch of weeks!

Jul 18 2016

Marvel Legends: Namor (Walgreens Exclusive) by Hasbro

YES! It’s a Marvel Monday Double Feature, because I’m buried in a Legends backlog so big it would give Thanos a hernia. And as long as I’m between waves, I thought I’d go ahead and take a look at this lone Walgreens Exclusive release of everyone’s favorite fishy-gigolo. Lock up your wife, Reed Richards… here comes Namor!

Namor comes in a standard style Legends window box. There’s no indication about its exclusivity, but it uniquely branded with his name on the front and again on the top panel. When you think of how many characters get released in shared slots and don’t have their name even appear on the front, but here comes Namor all flash and branded out! It practically looks like it’s branded off of some non-existent Namor movie. Well, give it time… Maybe Phase 8? Anyway… you get some really nice character art on the side panels and the back panel advertises the Civil War Wave, but without any mention of the Giant Man BAF.

Out of the package, Namor is one mighty fine looking figure. A good deal of his costume is painted onto the buck, but what a lovely paint job it is! You get a partially black suit with some brilliant metallic blue scales to spice things up. He even has the trashy, low plunging neck line that points all the way down to his trouser trout. Sculpted bits include his gold belt and bracers, the white wings on his ankles, and a high collar that surely drives all the mermaids wild.

The head sculpt here is pretty fantastic. Just yesterday, I was bitching about Hasbro and their waxy plastic and soft head sculpts in their Star Wars Black line. Well, clearly they know how to do it right, because because this is how to do a 6-inch scale portrait proud. The plastic holds the sculpted detail very well, skin tone looks great and the paint on the eyes, hair, and eyebrows is crisp and clean. I’m thrilled that they can do it for Marvel, but why not Star Wars too?

As a swimmer, Namor needs to be agile and the articulation on this body suits him quite well. You get double hinges in both the elbows and knees, rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, thighs, and lower legs. The ankles have hinges and lateral rockers, the waist has a swivel, there’s an ab crunch in the chest, and the neck is both ball jointed and hinged.

Accessories include two pairs of hands and a rather large trident. The figure comes out of the box with the trident holding hands and the extras are flat with the fingers together for swimming. The trident is cast in a less than stellar gold plastic, but spruced up a bit with some white and metallic blue paint accents.

While the idea of Walgreens Exclusive Marvel Legends figures still sounds really odd to me, I cannot deny that they’ve been landing some pretty big fish. HA! Seriously, though, with hits like Agent Venom, Black Ant, and now Namor, these are going above and beyond the sort of lazy repaints that I would have expected. Now, whether a character like Namor should be an Exclusive is another matter entirely, but it seems as if this one has not been difficult to find in stores. And even people like me, who live in a black pit of despair when it comes to toy distribution, have the option of ordering him through Walgreen’s website. Sure, at $27 because shipping, he’s a little pricier, but for a figure this great, I’ll pay that all day long. Now if only we can get a new Legends Sue Storm to keep him warm at night.

Jul 18 2016

Marvel Legends (Absorbing Man Wave): Crusher Creel Build-A-Figure by Hasbro

As all Legends collectors know, after finishing a hearty meal of individually boxed figures, we get served a lovely Build-A-Figure for dessert. Well, they’re clearing away the dinner plates and that means today it’s time for me to cobble together… The Absorbing Man! Carl “Crusher” Creel consists of ten pieces, including: Two legs, two sets of arms, two heads, a torso, and his big weapon.

Creel is a little unconventional as a BAF because he comes with extra swap-out pieces (like the Odin BAF) and in doing so, he sacrifices a little in size. Oh, he’s still bigger than your average Legends figure, but he’s also on par with the Legends Wrecking Crew, which were packaged figures. Indeed, some of those even came with this very ball and chain accessory. Add to that how common extra heads have become and only the extra arms make it questionable as to whether Creel could have been offered as a boxed figure. Of course, those are just some observations and if it’s a good figure, I don’t need size alone to justify a BAF’s value.

And Creel is indeed a good figure, albeit a fairly simple one when you get down to it. He sports a pair of sculpted trousers with the purple and black stripes, as opposed to the also acceptable black and white stripes. Both looks are good, but I’m glad they went purple, just because it adds some nice color to him and that’s also the version I got in the 3 3/4-inch Universe line. He’s also got a wide belt and nice pair of black shoes with a spiffy shine, and that’s the extent of this guy’s wardrobe.

From the waist up, Creel features a shirtless torso with decent musculature sculpted in (this guy is ripped!) and some rather intense looking veins running throughout. The upper body is cast in flesh tone plastic, there’s no fancy wash or additional paint apps, but it certainly gets the job done. He only has one normal arm and it’s his lefty, so I’ve started him out with that and his wood-assimilating right hand, but I’ll come back to the arms in a bit. First let’s look at the two portraits..

RUTH… RUTH BABY? Yeah, I see a little family resemblance between Creel and Sloth from The Goonies. Fair enough, Creel is often drawn as a pretty weird looking guy, so it works. I think the lazy paint on the right eye helps drive it home, and I’m not about to give Hasbro’s team of crack eye painters the benefit of the doubt and presume it was intentional. It’s really not a bad portrait at all. Hasbro has been instilling tons of personality into a lot of their Legends villains, and this is just another example of that. He looks pissed off and deranged, and I’m good with that! And speaking of pissed off..

HOLY SHIT! The other noggin features Creel in full on rage mode while in the process of assimilating stone, and this is a magnificent piece! His mouth is open and teeth exposed in a maniacal scream and the stone side of the face features craggy fissures sculpted in and is coupled with some truly effective paintwork that really sells this effect beautifully. The gold painted eye is just the disturbing cherry on this creepy-ass sundae of a head sculpt.

The stone head mates well with the stone assimilating left arm, but I do wish I had a normal right arm to display him like this, because that would be my favorite default look for him. But I can understand how yet another arm would not have costed out.

The wood assimilating arm is another example of great sculpt matched with some great paintwork.

And finally, you have the metal assimilating left arm that is meant to mate with his ball and chain weapon. Here’s where things stumble a bit. The arm itself is fantastic. The metal effect of the paint is probably the best of all three, and that’s saying something because the others are awfully good. Unfortunately, the ball and chain is just left flat silver plastic, so the idea that he’s absorbing the metal from the weapon just isn’t conveyed all that well. Besides which, the contrast between the two just make the ball and chain look cheap by comparison. It’s a shame, really.

Creel has all the right points of articulation for a bulkier Legends figure. All of the arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists as well hinges in the elbows and swivels in the biceps. The muscle-bound arm sculpts don’t allow for all that much range of motion, but then I don’t really need Creel to be all that agile when he’s clobbering someone with his giant ball. The legs feature rotating hinges and swivels in the hips, double hinges in the knees, and hinges in the ankles.

The Absorbing Man is a solid figure and I do appreciate the different display options Hasbro gave us here. That having been said, the catalog of BAFs has been pretty impressive as of late, so he does come up a little short (both figuratively and literally) when compared to some of the more heavy hitters we’ve seen in the last year or so. With that having been said, he’s an important addition to the list of bastards in my Legends universe and if this was the way Hasbro had to get him to me, I have no problem with that. It also helps that this was a pretty solid wave through and through and I genuinely didn’t feel like I was buying anyone just to get a BAF part… and yes, that includes you Speed Demon!

Jul 14 2016

Transformers Combiner Wars: Skywarp (Leader Class) by Hasbro

I honestly didn’t plan this, but it’s almost exactly a year to the day since I Featured Combiner Wars Leader Class Thundercracker here on FFZ. Crazy, how time flies! I followed it up last October with a look at Starscream, and here I am finally completing this Trinity of Seekers with Skywarp! Today’s Feature will be easy-peasy-quick-and-breezy, as this is of course just a repaint of the toy I’ve already looked at twice. And that’s a good thing, because it was a long day at work and I am drinking heavily.

The box is more or less identical to the other Leader Class Seekers, albeit with updated character art. Skywarp looks more pissed than I’ve ever seen him on the front of the box. I must have found this toy dozens of times languishing on the shelves without picking him up. It’s not that I didn’t want him. Skywarp is easily my favorite Seeker deco and I am fond of this as a Seeker mold, but truth be told, shelling out $45 for a repaint of the same toy twice isn’t something I relish these days and so I was waiting for a sale. It’s hard to believe that I’m the same guy who used to hit Walmarts at 2am looking for Armada repaints. Anyway, I got nothing else to say about the package, so let’s take a look at his alt mode…

Yup, this is still a mighty attractive jet mode, and it still boggles my little change-a-bot loving mind that this is remolded from Jetfire. I really dig the sleek contours and all the sculpted panel lines. And as good as this jet looked the last couple of times I showcased it, it looks all the better for wearing Skywarp’s glorious black and purple. The base black plastic isn’t as glossy as I would have liked, but you can get a nice sheen off of it when viewed in the right light and at the right angle. Both the purple paint and plastic are nicely matched and really add that extra pop, along with that sumptuous silver paint that Hasbro seemed to discover solely for the Combiner Wars line.

Skywarp features three sets of folding landing gear, and lest you forgot… the canopy opens revealing a fully detailed cockpit with two seats.

He’s also loaded with guns. There are six guns in total that can find a home on his jet mode, and there’s even a couple of places you can stick his missile launcher, but as a champion of symmetry, I prefer to leave it off of his alt mode. With three sets of cannon one each wing, I’d say he’s armed well enough. As far as jets go, Skywarp is one sexy beast, so how’s that robot mode?

I still dig it! The transformation here is ridiculously easy, so if you’re someone who equates value with complexity in your converto-robos, this mold may feel like a cheat. As far as I’m concerned, it gets the job done and the relatively quick conversion does make him fun to play with. As I’m sure I’ve already pointed out a couple of times with his brothers, the robot mode here isn’t perfect. There’s a lot of ugly under-wing showing. Damn, this would have been an amazing looking figure if they could have added a swivel to allow those wings to turn around. Eh, but then they’d be pointing down. Either way, it’s not a deal-breaker for me and there’s still a lot to love here only now it’s fortified with 100% pure Skywarp Deco Goodness.

Of course, he’s still wearing a collapsed jet on his back, which isn’t a big deal to me. Yeah, it showcases that the “cockpit” in his chest is a fakeout, but c’mon, that’s pretty obvious anyway.

The head sculpt is also the same one we’ve seen all along. I’ll concede that at the Leader Class level, maybe Hasbro should have ponied up for some new head sculpts. Nothing drastic, but maybe just different expressions. Selling the same toy to idiots like me without a stitch of new sculpting seems like dirty pool. But, whatever!

All those guns that Skywarp wore in his alt mode can find a home on his robot mode, or you can just pull them all off. Granted, only a couple can actually be wielded as weapons, unless he’s shooting in some real weird angles. The leg guns do a nice job of bulking out his lower legs, without getting in the way too badly. The smaller guns can stay pegged to his wings. I’m not a big fan of them there in robot mode, but I accept it as a place to store them. His arm cannons are the ones that mean business. He can aim them well, although they’re rather bulky and can get in the way of posing his arms.

Skywarp also comes with the same missile launcher gun that the other two Seekers have. It’s a damn good gun, but handguns and Seekers don’t really fit together in my head, so this will probably join the others in a pile at the back of the shelf or be inherited by some other lucky robot.

One year after being introduced to it, I still love this mold… possibly more than it deserves. It looks great, it’s fun to play with and when you get all three Seekers together with Generations Megatron and MP Soundwave, it’s an impressive sight. I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I picked these up as my Masterpiece Seekers. It may sound like sacrilege, but MP Seeker mold just doesn’t cut it for me, not at the asking price. Granted, there’s a lot of compromise here, but for the money, I’ll happily have these guys stand in for now.

Jul 11 2016

Marvel Legends (Absorbing Man Wave): Ben Reilly Spider-Man & Spider-Gwen by Hasbro

Even with Mondays dedicated to Marvel Legends, I’m still falling behind, so today I’m checking out both figures in the “Edge of Spider-Verse” slot. This way I can get to the BAF next week and then start in on either the Giant Man Wave or the Juggernaut Wave. Sorry, Rhino Wave, I’ll have to come back to you. You’re all ready so far overdue, I might as well save you for a slow Legends month, if that ever happens.

This “Edge of Spider-Verse” duo gives us two worthwhile characters for our Legends shelves, touching on both old and new. We’ve got Ben Reilly in the costume he wore while standing in for Peter Parker as Spider-Man, and of course in Spider-Verse. And we also get the new hotness breakout hit that is Gwen Stacy as Spider-Gwen. I’ll confess that I sat out most of Ben Reilly’s run as Spider-Man back in the day and have always preferred him as Scarlet Spider, but I have been enjoying reading Spider-Gwen quite a lot. Let’s start with Ben Reilly…

I won’t spend a whole lot of time on Reilly, because in essence it’s still just another variant on the Spider-Man costume that we’ve been seeing an awful lot of in this 6-inch line. I’m not complaining, mind you, but I feel a little bad for any collectors out there who aren’t really into Spidey. And I mean that on a couple of levels. Anyway, this is the body that we saw recently used for both Superior Spider-Man, and the Hobgoblin Wave Spidey, so it features those additional lateral shoulder crunches and is overall an excellent buck for old Web-head. The main addition here in terms of sculpt are the external web shooter cuffs.

One of the things that struck me most about the Superior Spider-Man design was how much it called back to this outfit, particularly with the larger and darker fields of blue, and the pronounced spider emblem on the chest. It’s not my favorite look, but I do like it. The paint here is especially crisp and the red is quite vibrant. There’s a little red bleeding through behind the whites of his eyes, but nothing too terrible.

Hasbro really loaded this guy up with extra pieces. For starters, you get a whopping three pairs of hands, which include two thwipping hands, two fists (hurray!), and two hands with splayed fingers. And that’s not all…

Probably the coolest thing about this figure is the inclusion of the head and hands to make Spider-Carnage. Considering how much is already in the package, this just feels like Hasbro going above and beyond. It’s a lurid love letters to fans of Web of Carnage and proves that even though Hasbro is cranking out Legends figures like crazy, they’re still managing to put in that little extra effort.

So, yes it’s another variant of the Spider-Man costume, and while I’m just that level of crazy where I can’t get enough Spidey variants, I can understand if some collectors are getting Spidey-Fatigue. Indeed, I think he’s catching up, or maybe passed, Iron Man as Hasbro’s Marvel Legends lovechild. But, regardless, this is a great looking figure and I never tire of playing with this buck. OK, moving on…

We have one of my more anticipated figures in recent Legends releases, Spider-Gwen. She’s been a breakout character from the Spider-Verse story and I’m glad to see that Hasbro wasted no time getting her a 6-inch figure. She was also an absolute bitch to get at a decent price, but thanks to Dorkside Toys, I was able to get her at a good price. Unfortunately, she doesn’t entirely live up to my expectations.

Her costume is simple enough and from the neck down the costume is achieved entirely through paint. The deco is largely black on white with some spider web patterns under her arms and inside her hood. Also, the soles and toes of her shoes are blue. The paint is fairly solid, although the lines could be sharper and there’s a little yellow discoloration on my figure’s chest and shoulder area.

You get a few options with the head. The figure comes out of the packaged masked and with her hood up. The paint on the mask features a gradient rose color around the eyes. The hood is separate from the head, so it doesn’t really impede the neck articulation much at all.

Also included is the extra unmasked head with a hood that’s sculpted in the down position. I think the head sculpt is excellent, and the paint is fairly tight, but I’ve said before that I wish Hasbro would paint the faces rather than leave them bare plastic. The waxy sheen on the skin is just a little off-putting. In fairness, it’s far more obvious under studio lights, but there’s always a little of it present making Ms. Stacey look like she’s been perspiring from working out.

Alas, you don’t get the same options with the hands. Gwen comes with a thwippy right hand and a left fist and no extras. Considering she comes in the same slot as the Ben Reilly Spidey I just looked at, it’s hard not to feel that the gal is getting shafted here. Then again, I understand that these figures need to cost out across each assortment. It’s a zero-sum game, so while some figures benefit from more, others feel it in the end.

Unfortunately, Hasbro still isn’t on the ball when it comes to the articulation of many of their female figures. Here’s what you get: The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, with swivels in the thighs and lower legs, and double hinged knees. The ankles have hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint under the chest and the neck features both a hinge and ball joint. Some of the biggest omissions as far as I’m concerned are the swivels in the biceps and double hinges in the elbows. Also, the lack of a waist swivel is a bummer. In some characters, those fewer points don’t always matter as much to me, but in the case of Spider-Gwen, the reduced pose-ability really hurts

I don’t want to come down too hard on Gwen. What’s here is fairly solid, but she is insanely acrobatic in the panels of her comic, and that’s something that just isn’t reflected nearly well enough in the figure. I never spend the extra bucks for Marvel Figmas or Figuarts. It’s too deep a hole to dive into. But I’d definitely consider it in the case of Spider-Gwen. It’s just kind of a shame that the umpteenth variant of Spider-Man in this wave feels like it got a lot more love and care than the one and only Legends Spider-Gwen. Of course, it helps that the former figure had a great body to build on, but maybe that just means it’s long past time that Hasbro invest in tooling a new and more agile female buck.

And that wraps up the individual figures in this wave. Reilly gives us Creel’s last two sets of arms and Spider-Gwen gives us… his ball and chain? Yeah, considering that she’s probably one of the most desired figures in the wave, I found it odd that she got bundled with a BAF part that you don’t really need, and a recycled one at that. Nonetheless, stop by next Monday and we’ll cobble together The Absorbing Man! With notification that my X-Men wave shipped today, I’m now officially backlogged with three whole waves!

Jul 7 2016

Transformers Animated: Starscream by Hasbro

Primus be praised! Transformers Thursday has been back in action for more than a couple of weeks now, and with a little luck, I’ll be able to keep it going for quite a while. Yes, I will be getting to some new stuff soon, but indulge me for just another week or so as I look at some recent additions to my TF: Animated collection. Today, I’m checking out Voyager Class Starscream. While the TF:A series had some ups and downs for me, one of the things I enjoyed the most was Tom Kenny’s characterization of Starscream. It took all his smarmy personality from the G1 cartoon and cranked it up to a thousand. Let’s face it, the legendary voice talent of Chris Latta should have been an impossible act to follow, but Kenny stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park. I’ve got no packaged shot, so let’s jump right in and check out his alt mode…

Yup, he’s a jet, and a damn cool looking one too! This is a fresh and futuristic design, which features forward angled wings and some prominent engine pylons. It’s a new look for the traitorous Seeker, and yet it still manages to carry the homage with details like the yellow cockpit and the intakes flanking it. The coloring is different from what we’re used to seeing. Instead of an off-white he’s a pale purple, but the red striping and accents help drive the homage home just a bit more. There are a few minor things that put me off, like the obvious telescoping nosecone, but all in all, I really dig this mode.

The undercarriage features three sets of folding landing gear and while the missile launchers have to be pointed back to use them, once he’s in flight, they can be angled forward to a more useful position. They’re not positioned under the wings, like you might expect, but I like their low-slung look here.

And while it’s not an official third mode, I have to say that Starscream has a killer Gerwalk Mode. It does, however, take some finesse to hold it together. Transforming him all the way into robot mode features some clever stuff, like the nosecone collapsing in to assist in the head reveal. The rest is more or less what we’ve seen before. The real bugger of this figure, however, are all the bits that fall off of him during transformation. The hinged fingers like to pop out, I’ve head the head pop off, and it’s a good idea to unload those missile launchers first because those babies have some hair triggers and can shoot pretty far.

The end result, however, is pretty sweet and despite the stylized design, it doesn’t stray far from the Starscream we all know and love. Tail fins on the legs? Check! Weapons on the arms? Check! Angled shoulder wings? Gotcha! Cockpit dead center? Yup! About the only thing he’s missing is the shoulder intakes, and they look pretty good on his chest.

The head sculpt is spot on to his on screen counterpart. And if light-piping in the eyes isn’t enough, you also get it in the mouth too so you can see his disgustingly smug smirk even in the dark.

Much like G1 Starscream’s null rays, this guy’s missile launchers can be angled up when not in use or flipped down to a firing position. They can, however, get in the way sometimes, so it’s always an option to pull out the missiles entirely. But then, what’s a Decepticon without his weapons, eh?

While I love this design, playing with Starscream can sometimes be a bitch. For starters, a lot of the bits that fall off of him during transformation will do it when I’m playing with him. Especially those hands! Also, his legs are oddly articulated and feature some unforgiving ratchets. Getting him posed so that he doesn’t look like he’s doing pelvic thrusts can be a lot of work, but a lot of times it’s worth it.

Voyager Class Starscream is far from a perfect figure. Much like the real Starscream his toy can be a frustrating jerk, but I think there’s more good here than bad. The figure does a nice job bringing the animated style to plastic form, not to mention the engineering of a working Transformer, and that’s something that in my mind should never be underestimated or overlooked about this line. And it feels great to finally have a figure of such a masterful treatment of this character in my collection.

FigureFan Zero

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