Apr 18 2016

Marvel Legends (Red Onslaught Wave): Captain America by Hasbro

I’m finally past the halfway mark in my look at this wave of Marvel Legends figures… only three more to go before I can cobble together a Red Skull! With the wave branded in a Captain America theme, it’s understandable that Cap himself would make an appearance and that’s exactly who I’m checking out today!

There’s really nothing new to say about the packaging, other than Cap and his accessories fill up that tray pretty well. It feels like we’ve been hit with a whole lot of Cap since the Legends line returned, but I’ve been more or less complete with these figures and I was surprised to find only a handful in my Legends drawers, and a couple of those were from the Cinematic Universe. With Rogers being one of my favorite Marvel characters, you won’t hear me complain about getting a fair share of different versions of the man. Oh yeah… see those shoulder straps?

Well forget about them. They literally slid off the figure’s arms the moment I got him out of of the package. I see no way of making them stay on, so I just have to ask, WTF, Hasbro? Costume malfunction aside, I really dig this figure. He’s about as classic a version of comic Cap that we’ve seen in Legends since the line has come back. It’s a very clean look for the costume with no scaling or texturing on the top of the costume at all, just a large white star and pronounced red and white stripes in the mid-section. The classic comic goodness is further enhanced by the very wide belt and large belt buckle, the flared gauntlets and the traditional buccaneer boots. This here is good old-fashioned and unfiltered patriotism, soldier!

The head sculpt is broad and beefy, which makes for a good comic look. The cowl features the extra large “A” as part of the sculpt as well as the protruding wings on the sides. Some of the paint lines could have been a little sharper, but there’s nothing too bad here.

This version of Cap sports more or less the same articulation as most. 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, with double hinges in the knees and swivel cuts in the thighs and tops of the boots. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. Finally, you get a rotating waist, ab crunch hinge, and ball joint in the neck. I will note that the hinge in the neck does very little and I’ve really only been able to get side to side movement out of the head.

The shield appears to be the same one that came with the Marvel NOW! version of Cap that was part of the Mandroid Wave. It’s the type that clips onto the arm and also offers a peg so it can be worn on the back. The paint on the surface is pretty crisp and clean.

You also get an extra pair of hands, which include a saluting right hand and a pointing left hand. It’s the sort of thing we’ve seen before in Legends scale Caps and while I’m not a big extra hand kind of guy, I do appreciate getting these with my Caps. Almost as much as getting a spare werewolf head.

Because of course, no Captain America figure is complete without an werewolf head. Wait, what? Yeah, this extra head in the package no doubt has had the more casual collectors scratching their heads. Wolf Cap was one of the more bizarre twists Captain America took a while (in the 90’s, I think?) back. I’ve never actually read that run, but it’s very possible I may be displaying this figure with the wolf head because, why the hell not?

I can certainly understand some collectors getting Cap fatigue from Legends. Those people are obviously filthy communists. Me? I’m a patriot, and so I’m happy to get another stand out version of Captain America for my shelf. Indeed, this one fits right in between the version that came in the Target Exclusive 3-Pack (with Radioactive Man and Ms Marvel) and the aforementioned modern look from the Mandroid Wave. The bonus werewolf head is just a gravy. Very silly gravy.

Apr 14 2016

Transformers Combiner Wars: G2 Stunticons Box Set by Hasbro, Part 1: Motormaster

Well, looks like I was able to get Transformers Thursdays kick-started a little early thanks to this big box of garishly colored plastic that arrived on my stoop earlier in the week. Lest you think Hasbro isn’t willing to take risks these days, I present to you the Combiner Wars Stunticons in those glorious Generation 2 colors that never actually saw official release here in the US. That is, until someone recently dropped an obscene amount of money on an un-circulated set via Ebay. It’s worth noting that this is actually the second G2-inspired Combiner Wars set Hasbro has sent to retail, the first being the Aerialbots, which I will probably get to eventually. Now, I was already out of buying Transformers and in college by the time G2 hit the shelves around 1991, but it’s impossible for me not to fall in love with the vivid coloring that the line used. Today I’m going to start with a look at the packaging and Motormaster…

The box is somewhat reminiscent to the packaging Takara uses for their Unite Warriors giftsets, although this one is a completely enclosed box with no window or front flap. Still, it’s impressively large and features very nice artwork on the front and the back shows the combined Menasor mode. It doesn’t actually make the connection to the G2 homage anywhere on the box, so anyone buying this set sight unseen and expecting to get the regular Stunticons will be in for a delightful or horrific surprise, depending on their personal tastes.

Inside the box, the six figures come packaged in their vehicle modes, just like the old G1 giftsets and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The weapons and combiner parts are laid out beside each figure. The box also contains an instruction sheet and a collectible character card for Menasor. Just look at these lovelies! They look like they would be right at home cruising the streets in GTA: Vice City. This is so damn cool!

A far cry from his drab black and gray G1-style deco, Motormaster’s cab now sports snazzy purple and two-tone blue coloring with stylish red stripes running down the sides. You also still get some of that great silver paint on the front grill and the smokestacks and the wheels are still black. I’ll also point out that they did a fairly good job matching the purple plastic on the corners with the purple paint on the rest of the cab. Although, I still wish they could have painted in the rest of the windows to match, even if it meant bumping up the price of the set a little bit. I don’t have anything new to say about the cab mode itself. It holds together pretty well and I’m surprised the Third Parties haven’t come out with trailers for Motormaster yet. Right now, they could get two versions out of whatever mold they cooked up. Four, if you count the two Optimus Primes. GET ON IT, DUDE’S!!!

Wow… he’s breathtaking! I mean, holy hell does he just pop! In robot mode, the new deco carries over from the cab with few surprises. You do get more blue showing than purple and the extra red paint hits really makes for a striking touch. It’s fascinating to see the profound differences that a drastic new color scheme makes, especially over a figure that was essentially just monochrome black and gray with a little purple. And the fact that there’s still a fair amount of purple and black means that this deco still works quite well for me as a Decepticon. Also, it feels like this figure was built off the updated mold with the more forgiving hip ratchets.

The vibrant silver paint used on the face is as eye catching as ever and there’s that epic G2 Decepticon emblem stamped right in the middle of his chest. I’ve got to admit, I never thought I’d see it on a modern toy that wasn’t some kind of Con Exclusive. It’s so damn cool to see that this is a regular retail release.

Motormaster includes the same two weapons that came with his original Combiner Wars release: His gun and sword. There’s really nothing new to be said about these. They feature the same brilliant silver paintwork and can combine with each other to form the larger Menasor sword.

What can I say, other than I am smitten with this guy. Granted, this mold has had its ups and downs with me. I didn’t care for it as Optimus Prime, mostly because of the big arms and the unpainted corners of the cab. But when it was released as Motormaster, I was totally on board and it still holds up for me just fine with this new release. The larger arms suit Motormaster’s brutish nature and both of the color schemes work perfectly for me. Sure, the first release will still be representing on my Combiner Wars shelves, but I’m already planning a second shelf for these G2 re-releases. This is simply a gorgeous figure and a wonderful homage to that quirky span of Transformers that held the franchise together until something new came along. I really can’t thank Hasbro enough for bringing this out, and you know what’s great? I still have five more figures to look at! Next Thursday, I’ll be back to check out a pair of limbs!

Apr 11 2016

Marvel Legends (Red Onslaught Wave): Mockingbird by Hasbro

Good grief, it’s Monday again and around these parts that means it’s time to look at some Marvel toys. Today I’m continuing my trek through the Red Onslaught/Skull Wave of Marvel Legends figures with Mockingbird. I can’t even begin to articulate my disappointment that TV’s Agents of SHIELD got dibs on Bobbi Morse. It’s not that I don’t think Adrianne Palicki isn’t great for the role, but she isn’t enough incentive for me to endure the rest of the show just for her. I would have rather seen her fleshed out at some point in the actual movies and with a costume a little closer to the comic look we’re about to see here today.

It’s the exact same package we saw last time when I looked at Sharon Carter, the other half of these two “Agents of SHIELD.” The tray is pretty crowded in there thanks to the BAF torso and shoulders being included. Oh yeah, note that I’m just calling these Marvel Legends in my titles and not Infinite Series or whatever they are now. I can’t be bothered to keep up with the name changes and re-brandings, Hasbro. Besides, now you call the 4-inch figures Legends too. Speaking of which, it’s worth noting that Mockingbird got a release in that smaller scale via the West Coast Avengers box set a couple of years ago.

I’m pretty sure this is what Mockingbird is wearing in the comics these days, but I’m pretty far behind in a lot of my Marvel Now trades. I do dig this look a lot. What we lose are the exposed legs and buccaneer boots and what we gain is a more tactical modern look that still pays respects to the classic costume. The boots now have reinforced armor on the shins with sculpted straps and some rather hardcore looking knee pads. Her top still has that button-down tunic look to it and she has a rather bland sculpted belt.

The costume is the typical monochromatic look for Mockingbird, but I like it. The only thing that breaks up the black and white are the silver wrist bracers. The white flanked by black on the top mimics a jacket, which maintains a cool and stylish look and ditches a garment, which would be really impractical for those martial arts fights. The paint lines are reasonably sharp, but man am I getting sick of seeing those production numbers painted on these figures in such an obvious way, in this case right on the inside of Bobbi’s left thigh. Oh yeah, she has a nice bum.

The portrait here is pretty good. I was actually rather surprised that the glasses were removable. That’s not easy to do at this scale and they still look good on the figure. Bobbi’s eyes seem a little far apart, which is the same quibble I had with Agent Carter last week. The sculpted detail in the hair here is a little soft, which is ironic because the hair itself is so damn rigid it renders the neck articulation nearly useless.

Speaking of articulation, while this appears to be an all new body, it feature the usual amount of articulation for most of the Legends female bucks. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, have swivel cuts in the thighs and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. There’s a ball joint just under the chest and both a ball joint and hinge in the neck.

Mockingbird includes the fighting staff that splits into two batons, which we’ve seen before with Hellcat and Daredevil. I don’t mind these. They’re kind of fun and they certainly suit the character.

When this wave was first revealed, Mockingbird was one of the figures I was most looking forward to and now that I have her in hand, she doesn’t disappoint. Yes, I do wish the hair was either softer plastic or sculpted in a way that would allow to pose the head. I really did enjoy playing around with her, but the difficult in getting the head to turn even a bit was the one irritant that kept pulling me out of fun. And while I think Sharon Carter was a solid figure, Mockingbird here easily lands as my favorite of this pair of Agents of SHIELD.

Apr 7 2016

Transformers Combiner Wars: Legends Class Shockwave by Hasbro

While I’m not ready to bring Transformers Thursdays back full-time, I did get lucky this week when picking up my Force Awakens Blu-Ray and found Legends Class Shockwave hanging on the pegs. I’ve been hunting this guy for a while now, since he’s going for scalper prices on most online sites, so you can imagine my excitement when I spied him there among all the other common peg fodder. It also worked out well because I am craaaaazy busy this week and I really needed something that I could do quick-and-dirty today and this little guy should do nicely!

The Combiner Wars packaging has grown on me a bit. We get some nice character art on the top of the card and a big bubble to see the figure, which is packaged in robot mode. The back of the card identifies Shockwave as specifically interacting with the Onslaught figure by attaching to his alt mode, and also points out that in this aspect of the Transformers fiction, it was Shockwave and not Starscream that created the Combaticons. I’m going against convention today and starting with his robot mode.

Yup, that’s Shockwave! Generally speaking, I’ve been pretty impressed with the recent crop of Legends Class figures and Shockwave does nothing to buck that trend. Yeah, I have a few minor quibbles, like I wish he had less molded kibble on his forearms, and I wish his gun hand was a little more pronounced, but on the whole, this little guy is pretty great. There’s a crazy amount of sculpted detail on him for such a small figure, the purple and translucent purple plastics look great together and the extra little silver paint hits go a long way to jazz things up. The tiny little cyclops head is also right on point!

From the back, we’ve got some hollow leg syndrome, which is perfectly acceptable to me in this smaller scale figure. The T-shaped backpack isn’t the prettiest thing around, but as far as kibbly backpacks go, it isn’t terribly intrusive either.

You get a lovely range of articulation for such a small figure. This includes ball joints in the shoulders, which are also on hinged posts, ball joints in the elbows, ball joints in the hips, hinges in the knees, and swivels in the thighs.

Transforming Shockwave is pretty simple and the result is a cannon or perhaps some kind of space cruiser a little reminiscent of the Fall of Cybertron Delxue Shockwave. On it’s own it isn’t much to look at and since I don’t have Onslaught (still waiting for the Takara version) let’s see how he works out with a couple of other figures…

Probably the most disappointing thing is that he really isn’t designed to be held by Combiner Wars Megatron and that’s because there’s a square peg right in front of the regular circular peg that would otherwise fit into the hand. I can get it to work, but it’s hard for me to comprehend why they wouldn’t have designed the figure to work better with the Leader Class Combiner Wars figures.

Ironically, it does work perfectly in many Third Party figures with the hinged knuckle. Above is Warbotron’s Not-Onslaught wielding Shockwave quite comfortably and I think this is where the little dude is going to stay for the time being.

See? I told you today was going to be quick-and-dirty! Legends Class Shockwave is an excellent little figure, but I’m glad I didn’t break down and overpay for him. He’s going for $20 now on Amazon and that’s just plain cray-cray. But at just under ten bucks, I’ll pick up the Legends Class all day long. They’re fun, they’re posable and while I wish the hand grip on his gun mode was a little more forgiving, the fact that he can work as a weapon for larger figures makes him all the more enjoyable.

Apr 5 2016

Star Wars Black (The Force Awakens): Han Solo by Hasbro

You’d have to be living under a bantha not to know that today is the day The Force Awakens releases on Blu-Ray and DVD, giving us the home version of the first Star Wars film since Return of the Jedi in 1983. I’m just gonna let that lie there. I picked up my copy as well as going digital too so I could watch it over the weekend. I still adore this movie. The action sequences are awesome without being too over the top, well except for the tentacle monsters I could have done without, and the new characters are so endearing and instantly relate-able to me. But even after multiple viewings, I’m still surprised to find that Han Solo was one of my favorite things about the film. Ford broke out of his shell and gave us a fun and enjoyable performance. It seemed only right to check out his Black Series figure today.

The packaging… It’s black! It’s red! It’s figure #18!!! I do like the blurb on the back, which begins with, “The exploits of Han Solo are legendary…” Goddamn right, they are. From Scoundrel to Captain to General, when we were kids, this was the guy we all wanted to be when we grew up. And now he’s all grown up. And by that, I mean old. But don’t let that fool you, like Han in the film, this figure is pretty damn good!

For starters, I liked Han’s costume in TFA and this figure pulls it off nicely. It reminds me of a more grizzled version of his Bespin ensemble. The leather jacket is intricately detailed with stitch lines, rumples, pockets, and those silver tubes in his breast pocket. What are those? Seriously, if you have one of those books, tell me what those are!

The brown wash on the jacket is very effective in giving it a worn look. Hasbro seldom does a nice job with this type of weathering, but here it’s a home run. Even the high boots have a convincing leather texture and a sharp, high gloss finish. It kind of reminds me of a leather jacket that another character who looks like this used to wear. Hmmm. The whole ensemble is tied together by his trusty smuggler’s belt with the low slung holster on his right hip.

As for the portrait, it may be sad to say it, but I think this is Hasbro’s best 6-inch scale Harrison Ford yet. How crazy is that? They can’t quite get it right on the regular version, but this one is damn good. Don’t get me wrong, it still looks a little misshapen and wonky, but it’s easily identifiable to me and I think it looks a lot more like Ford does now than the original Black Series Han looked like Ford back then. I think this is one of those cases where they had a good sculpt and something in the factory went amiss. The only other thing really off here is the color of his hair. It looked a lot more gray on screen, where as this coif is brown with some gray highlights.

Naturally, Han comes with his trusty blaster and it too is a really nice piece of work. His right hand is clearly designed to hold it, as it has the trigger finger positioned correctly, but he can hold it in the off hand as well. The blaster also fits snugly into his hip holster.

The articulation is exactly what I’ve come to expect from this line. That equates to arms with rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. Legs that are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels at the hips. The ankles are hinged and have some generous lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint in the torso and a hinge and ball joint in the neck.

I remember when I bought this case and thought, “WHERE THE F’CK IS MY AHSOKA TANO FIGURE? WHY DID YOU GIVE ME TWO LUKES??? NOW I KNOW WHY THE WORD “BAD” IS INCLUDED IN THE NAME OF YOUR STORE!!!” Wait, that’s not where I was going with that. Afterwards, I thought,“Oh, great. Old Han Solo is in this case. I’m sure that’ll be a great figure.” You see that was misplaced sarcasm, because it is a really great figure… at least by Black Series standards. Never would have I expected to enjoy this figure as much as I did. Simply put, it feels like a fitting final tribute to the lovable rogue. Because, I’m sure we won’t be getting any more Han Solo figures in the Black Series, right?

Apr 4 2016

Marvel Legends (Red Onslaught Wave): Sharon Carter by Hasbro

It’s yet another Marvel Monday here at FFZ and I am in the midst of running through the Red Onslaught Wave of Marvel Legends. I’ve already featured the Whirlwind and Cottonmouth as the “Forces of Evil” and today I’m going to look at the first of the two ladies that make up the “Agents of SHIELD.” It’s Sharon Carter!

Same deal as last time, the packaging is branded with a Captain America theme that includes a shield on the top flap and his name on the front. As this is one of those “variant slots” and shares it with Mockingbird, Agent Carter’s name doesn’t appear on the front, just the “Agents of SHIELD” moniker. Not to be confused with that TV Show that I just could not get into no matter how hard I tried. Seriously, for all you people who tell me I have a Marvel bias because I can’t stomach the DC Zack Snyder movies, I’m still willing to call the Marvel Cinematic Universe out when it deserves it. Marvel, that show sucks! Just stick with the movies… and the Netflix stuff. What? This has nothing to do with today’s Feature? Well, FINE, I better get back on track, hadn’t I? So, my point is that there isn’t much else new to be said about the package, so let’s jump right on in and look at the figure…

Heeeey, we’ve seen this body before! Yes, as most everyone (including my cat) suspected, Sharon is built off the same female SHIELD agent buck that has been floating around for a couple of years now. And while Hasbro has been doing some little tweaks and kit-bashing on this figure in the past, from the neck down this one is just a straight repaint of Maria Hill from the Agents of SHIELD 3-pack. The biggest change up here is the white suit, which I’ll concede does bring out some elements in the sculpt that weren’t as evident on the darker versions. It’s a good sculpt, with plenty of detail like texturing and piping, but this time around some of the details seem a little softer. Paint mostly consists of the black straps with some silver used on the fixtures, the holstered guns, and the zipper. The SHIELD emblem tampos on her shoulders look particularly nice.

The portrait isn’t bad, but it’s nothing outrageously special either. It looks familiar, almost like some of the Legends female head sculpts are blending together. I think the eyes are set a little far apart, but otherwise there’s not much to complain about here, other than the waxy plastic that doesn’t look like skin. The paint on the facial features is fairly solid and I do dig her sculpted ponytail.

With Sharon being the fourth version of this buck in my collection, the articulation holds no surprises. As a matter of fact… if Hasbro can keep reusing this buck, then two can play at that game. Let me just jump back to an earlier review and cut and paste and here we go… The arms are ball jointed in the shoulders and at the elbows and wrists. Sadly, there are no bicep swivels, but I’m coming to expect that omission in Hasbro’s female figures these days. The ball joints in the elbows make up for that a little. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double-hinged at the knees, and feature swivels in the thighs. The ankles have both hinges and rockers. There is no waist swivel, but you do get a ball joint in the torso and again for the neck.

Agent Carter comes with her twin pistols, which really aren’t accessories at all because THEY ARE STILL PERMANENTLY SCULPTED INTO HER HOLSTERS. Gah! Hasbro, why do you keep subjecting us to this outrage? I’m guessing that you knew how many times you were going to recycle this figure, the least you could have done was give her some working holsters.

Instead she comes with this really weird looking gun. I really don’t like this gun. It’s weird. It’s also super soft and comes warped right out of the package. Hasbro has plenty of regular automatic pistols in their Legends scale. I would have preferred one of those.

As critical as I’ve been about her, Sharon Carter really isn’t a bad figure, but she definitely feels phoned in to me. I do find it strange, however, that Hasbro can take one of their standard generic bucks and repaint a different costume on it over and over and few people (myself included) think twice about it, but when they do it with a body as distinctive as this one, it’s obvious and becomes tiresome. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite. With that having been said, it is nice to have Agent Carter join my SHIELD shelf and I’ve got no regrets about buying her. I’m aware that there are collectors out there who are none to fond of this particular buck, but it works fine for me and the recycling here was totally logical and expected. I’m always up for more SHIELD agents, not to mention I needed that leg for Red Skull. Next Monday… Mockingbird!

Mar 28 2016

Marvel Legends (Red Onslaught Wave): Whirlwind by Hasbro

Last time on Marvel Monday, I started in on the Red Skull/Onslaught Wave with a look at Cottonmouth. Today I’m pressing on with the figure that shares that figure’s slot, or at least would be sharing it if they were actually variants and Hasbro was still making running changes in these cases. And thank God they stopped that shit, eh? Anyway, the other half of the “Forces of Evil” is the mutant Whirlwind, and I was pretty happy to see this guy make an appearance in Legends.

The box is literally identical to the one we saw last time, with the character name absent from the front. This wave is branded under “Captain America,” complete with a shield emblem on the top flap and blue-filtered images of Whirlwind on the right panel and Cottonmouth on the left. It’s collector friendly, but thankfully I convinced myself not to try saving all my Legends packages because if I did, I’d have an entire wall of my living room covered in them. Wait… Actually, that sounds pretty cool.

I’ve always loved Whirlwind’s design. He’s that right mix of screwball goofy, but still realistic enough to take serious. You don’t snicker at a guy in a costume if he’s coming at you with buzz saws. I think he would fit right in guest starring as some kind of crazy Super Saiyan villain in a live action Japanese series or just duking it out with the Power Rangers. The costume is basically a metallic gray body suit with reinforced green armor bands around the torso and those buccaneer boots that comic characters are so keen on wearing. Oh yeah, he also has those spinning saw blades on his wrists! I’ll bet it took all of Hasbro’s collective resolve not to put a spinning torso gimmick into this guy. Oh, you know they wanted to!

Damn, Whirlwind’s packing a tight little bottom! Yup! Anyway, the two-tone coloring is very simple, but extremely well done. Yeah, there’s some of that annoying swirly pattern in the gray plastic, but it’s not so bad that it bothers me like it did with the comic version of Ultron from several waves back. It’s just really nice to get a figure with some actual sculpting in the body, rather than just a painted on costume.

The head features Whirlwind’s bucket helmet, and while this no doubt required a lot less effort than a full on face sculpt, I’m happy to say Hasbro didn’t cut any corners. The eyes and lips visible through the holes in the helmet are good enough to convince me there’s a fully sculpted head under there, even though I know better. The metallic green finish matches the armor bits on the body and really makes for an attractive finish.

The saw blades on the wrists are removable, as they simply peg into place. It’s a cool feature and one that I didn’t even notice until one of them popped off as I was playing around with him. It would have been neat if he came with an extra pair.

The articulation here is quite good. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs have ball joints at the hips, double hinges at the knees, hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles, and swivel cuts in the thighs. It seems like there are swivels at the tops of the boots, but mine won’t give and I’m afraid I’m going to twist them off. The torso features an ab crunch hinge and a swivel in the waist. Finally, the neck has a ball joint, but because of the helmet, it really only allows for rotational movement of the head.

No doubt about it, this figure is as solid as they come. He’s loads of fun to play around with and he and Cottonmouth make for a wonderful looking pair of costumed bastards. The paint is fantastic, the coloring is great, the joints are sound, and he has more original sculpting than most of the figures we’re getting in Legends these days. Sure, some may quibble about why are we getting characters like “A” when we still haven’t got a good version of “B,” but I say keep the villains coming, Hasbro. Figures like Whirlwind are exactly the type that I want to populate my shelves so the more the merrier is my motto. Also, I’ve now got both of Red Skull’s meat hooks!

Mar 23 2016

Star Wars Black (Rebels): Kanan Jarrus by Hasbro

The newest wave of the Star Wars Black Series has a particularly interesting offering in it. No, I’m not talking about Old Han Solo… I’ll get to him eventually. No, I’m talking about a realistic treatment of Kanan Jarrus, the fugitive Jedi from the Rebels animated series. Now, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen animated characters get a realistic makeover. Hasbro did it to Ahsoka Tano in the Vintage line. Actually, they did it to her again in this wave, only not in the wave I got stuck with. My case had two Lukes in it instead. But don’t get me started again on that. Really, don’t.

Despite the Rebels crossover there’s nothing new to be said about the packaging. You get a monochrome portrait of the character on the front and a little blurb about him on the back. Kanan is Figure #19.

So, right off the bat, I’m going to say that I think this is one of the nicest figures we’ve had in the Black Series in a while. Putting aside whether or not the realistic portrait works or not, and looking at it from the neck down, the sculpt and paint on this figure are both fantastic. Hasbro added texturing to the pants and part of the shirt to give the outfit a realistic look, while also downplaying those vertical stripes on the shirt from the animation model. There’s also a more drastic color difference for the darker parts, which adds a little more complexity to this new realistic look. Overall, the colors are more muted, making for a grittier appearance.

The armor on his right shoulder and arm looks particularly good. The paint is very convincing as worn metal and the added white insignia on the shoulder looks appropriately worn and weathered. The cross strap for the shoulder armor is sculpted as part of the buck and the fixtures are neatly painted. He also features a smuggler’s style belt with a low slung holster on his right hip. No doubt about it, this version of Kanan looks like he would be right at home swaggering through a backwater planet in the live action Star Wars Universe.

The portrait is no slouch either. To be clear, I enjoy Rebels in spite of its stylistic look, not because I’m a fan of that look. I didn’t like the style at all in the beginning, but the show ultimately won me over. So, I was likely an easy mark for this figure and I really like what they did with the head sculpt. There’s a little over spray on the beard and I do wish Hasbro would stop using the waxy plastic for the heads or at least find some way to paint more realistic flesh tones, but that’s the best nitpick I can come up with here. The head looks great, right down to the little ponytail in the back.

The articulation here is as solid as we get in the 6-inch Black Series. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivel cuts in the thighs, double hinges in the knees, and the ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint in the torso and both a ball joint and hinge in the neck. I would have loved some swivel cuts in the biceps, but Hasbro seems to be done putting those into this line.

Kanan comes with both his lightsaber and his holdout blaster. The blaster is a great sculpt, and looks a lot like the ones carried by some of Jabba the Hutt’s henchmen in Return of the Jedi. His right hand is sculpted to hold it and it also fits nicely in the functional holster on his right hip.

The lightsaber includes a removable blade and the hilt breaks into two parts so that they can be worn separately on his belt like he does on the show. After all, you can’t go around advertising you’re a Jedi. The larger part tabs in horizontally on the back of his belt and the smaller tabs into the front. After getting so many of Luke’s lightsaber in this line, it’s nice to get a fresh and original design.

Sure, I was excited for this figure to begin with, but I didn’t expect it to turn out anywhere near this good. It’s no secret that the Black Series has been languishing in mediocrity a lot of the time, so to get a figure that impresses me is a nice surprise. Granted, there’s nothing about this figure that couldn’t have been done just as well in the 3 3/4-inch scale, except maybe the hilt would be too small to break apart. Still, at this point, I’m just happy to get a figure that looks this good and feels like Hasbro put a lot of work into it. Sabine from Rebels has already been confirmed for the Black Series, and I seriously hope that Hasbro plans to follow through with the rest of the crew at least.

Mar 21 2016

Marvel Legends (Red Onslaught Wave): Cottonmouth by Hasbro

It’s time for Marvel Monday to get back to the Legends line, and boy do I have a lot of catching up to do. I’m actually going to leap clear over the earlier Rhino BAF Wave to look at the Red Onslaught Wave only because I actually have all of these figures, and I’m still hunting some from the previous assortment. Let’s start things rolling with Cottonmouth!

The packaging identifies this as a Captain America themed wave, although some of the characters here make for a tenuous connection at best. Nonetheless, I’ll be the first to complain that the Legends line doesn’t engage in enough team building and I’m hoping that Cottonmouth here (Burchell Clemens, not Cornell) is the first of many members of The Serpent Society to come to the pegs. Billed here as one of the “Forces of Evil,” Cottonmouth shares this slot in the assortment with Whirlwind. Considering there are no longer running changes in these cases, and they each have unique BAF parts, I wonder why Hasbro still pairs up figures like this. Do they save that much by printing a few less packages per wave? In the end it matters not to me, as I’m about to bite right through this package to get at my figure. Actually, I think I’ll just use scissors.

Cottonmouth’s costume is all paint with no original sculpting. In fact, the only thing really distinctive about his suit is the rather abstract snake face on his chest. From the neck down he’s built straight off of the Tigershark buck right down to the big graspy hands. As a result, he’s a pretty big dude. He positively dwarfs fellow snake fanatic Constrictor and he’s a pretty tall order for any of the previous Captain America’s to take on as well. While I dig the purple and yellow deco, the paint on my figure is pretty sloppy. The edges around the glove of his left hand are rough and there’s yellow paint splatter on his chest. This is also one of those instances where the paint on the leg just below the knee is supposed to match the plastic on the boots, but the darker purple bleeds through.

While Hasbro took the easy way out on the body, they obviously put some extra work into the head. The open mouthed snake hood is textured and the portrait here is pretty fantastic. Hasbro has been pretty good about giving their Legends villains’ faces a little extra personality and Clemens here is no different. I love his expression, the detail in the facial structure and the teeth is excellent and the blank pupil-less eyes make him rather creepy.

Since we’ve seen this body before, the articulation should hold few surprises. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and double hinges in the elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, have swivels in the thighs and lower legs, and the ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch hinge in the torso, and the neck is both ball jointed and hinged. The joints are all solid, no mush here, making Cottonmouth a lot of fun to play around with.

If you’re in this line for the universe building like I am, Cottonmouth should be a welcome addition to your shelf. I’m always up for more villains and while I would have liked a little more effort put into the quality control on the paint, this is still a decent figure in my book. I certainly would have happily picked him up even if he didn’t come with one of those precious Build-A-Figure parts. Now let’s hope that Hasbro keeps the ball rolling and starts delivering on some more Serpent Society figures!

Mar 16 2016

Star Wars Black: Luke Skywalker (Tatooine) by Hasbro

It seems like a while since I had some new 6-inch Black Series figures in hand. I think a part of the problem has been distribution problems in the last wave. I’ve still yet to see a General Hux or X-Wing Pilot Asty, and seeing as they go for $50+ on Amazon right now, I’m guessing that I’m not alone. I was only able to get the Flametrooper all by his lonesome. But now I finally received my case of 2016, Wave 2 figures and while the breakdown wasn’t what I was promised (I got two Lukes and no Ahsoka Tano and I’m still working on rectifying that) I’m happy to finally have some new figures in this line to look at. Let’s start with Luke…

Luke comes in the same style of package that was revamped for The Force Awakens. I like this presentation a lot. It augments the othewise dull black box by adding a red backdrop to the tray and a red side panel. On the downside the front features some of the worst character art I’ve seen in a while. I mean, holy shit, is that really supposed to be Luke? The figures are also numbered and Luke here is #21, which seems like a lot. I’m going to have to consult a checklist and see if I’m missing any that I don’t know about. Anyway, if I had one complaint about the Black Series is that I wish it had focused more on A New Hope way back when it first launched and it seems like “Farmboy” Luke here is a long overdue release.

Straightaway, the most noticeable thing here is the use of soft goods for Luke’s tunic. Fabric costuming seemed like a no-brainer for this larger scale line, and yet Hasbro has been avoiding it left and right. We got little bits of fabric to accentuate Boba Fett, Obi-Wan, and Slave Leia, but it’s been very little. They even omitted a fabric cloak for Jedi Knight Luke, which was something even Kenner gave us in the vintage 3 3/4-inch original. Well they went balls out with it here and I think that’s going to be a polarizing point for collectors.

Now, I get it, it’s hard to make fabric costumes work in this scale. The garments don’t have enough weight to sit properly on the figure so you need to do some really deft tailoring or use very special fabric. It succeeded brilliantly on the Kylo Ren figure and while I don’t think it’s that successful here, I’m still happy with the results. I was not a fan of the sculpted robes on the Prequel Obi-Wan figure in this line and I think this looks better. It’s a bit more billowy than it should be, particularly around the arms, but it’s a nicely tailored piece and with the right futzing, I was able to get some decent results.

The base figure is just bare from the waist up. The sculpting on the pants and boots is decent enough. Articulation is right about what we’ve been getting all along. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, and double hinged elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels in the thighs. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint in the torso and a hinge and ball joint in the neck.

The portrait is passable. I’ve been arguing that the Luke likenesses have been getting worse as this line moves on, but this might be the first one to buck that trend. Or at least it might if not for the waxy plastic that’s used, which doesn’t hold the details all that well. Mine also has a splotch of yellow paint on his cheek. Granted, I have to get in pretty close to find these things bothersome. The expression is a little too dour for me, but then Luke on Tatooine was a sulky little sot, so maybe it actually fits.

The belt clips pegs around the waist and is easily removable. It features some particularly nice paint hits on the buckle and the brass fixtures. You also get two accessories here: His binoculars and his lightsaber. We’ve seen this lightsaber over and over, so there’s nothing new to say about it. The blade is removable and the hilt can hang on the belt. The binoculars are a pretty nice sculpt and he can hold them fairly convincingly. They can also clip to the belt. I would have liked to see one more accessory in here, preferably his rifle.

While I’m happy with the soft goods, there’s certainly room for improvement, so I soaked the tunic and let it dry on the figure overnight. It’s a trick that sometimes works for iffy looking 1:6 scale outfits…

It’s still a little damp in the above picture and to be honest, there isn’t a dramatic improvement, other than it fits a little closer to the chest now.

All in all, I’m rather pleased with this figure, but I suppose I could understand if it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea… or in this case blue milk. I’m rather anxious for Hasbro to cover the original twelve from A New Hope and this brings us one step closer. We know Leia is coming, but I’m really excited to get a couple of Sandpeople for Luke to fight. It’s a fun figure and I’m in the camp that is very glad they went with the soft goods tunic over a sculpted one. I think the biggest room for improvement here would have been a few more accessories. Considering we got the desert hat and rifle in previous 3 3/4-inch releases, their absence here feels rather stingy.

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