Mar 14 2016

Marvel Universe Infinite: Sandman and Black Cat by Hasbro

Since I’ve spent the last two Marvel Mondays with Hot Toys, I thought I’d slum it up a bit this week with some Marvel Universe. Yes, this line still exists! It’s no secret that Hasbro’s 3 3/4-inch Marvel line has taken a backseat to their 6-inch Legends. Looking back, I only featured four of these smaller scale figures in all of 2015 and meanwhile I’m struggling to keep up with the non-stop flood of their larger cousins. And yet, Universe/Infinite Series, whatever you want to call it, continues to cling to life with new waves releasing every now and then. Last time I visited with this line I checked out a couple of Spider-Man villains, and since we recently got a teaser of Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I’m going to keep the Spidey love going with Black Cat and not one, but two versions of Sandman!

Nothing conveys the excitement of a comic book action figure than drab, black and gray packaging. I know, I harp on this every time, but it’s such a far cry from the old days when you got bright and colorful character art and Hasbro had some fun with the whole HAMMER and SHIELD thing. At one point you got personalized figure stands and little envelopes with character profiles, but that’s all gone and the presentation for this line has sucked for a while now. The 3 3/4-inch line is getting re-branded this year, so here’s hoping we get something better. But enough harping on Hasbro’s cut-backs and lazy graphic design, let’s start with Sandman.

William Baker, or Flint Marko if you prefer, comes in his brown trousers, belt, and familiar two-tone green shirt. He borrows heavily from the now ancient Absorbing Man figure. And I’m not just talking about the carded release, but way back to the Secret Wars comic two-packs. Yup, this body has been around the block more than a few times now. I mean, holy hell, how many times are we going to see these legs? Absorbing Man, Drax, Luke Cage, Doc Ock… these trousers have seen more hand-me-downs than a pair of Goodwill bell bottoms. The torso is also from Absorbing Man with the shirt painted on. It’s a decent enough body, although the legs look super puffy to me when compared with the waist. The head sculpt is new and while it’s a tad soft when compared to some of the MU’s better offerings, it’s not bad at all.

Besides the head, the other new bits are sandy-effect forearms and these are done quite well. His right hand is an enlarged grasping claw and his left hand is a giant spiked fist-hammer. Both of the sand limbs feature some fine sculpting and paint work to make them look convincing. The grabbing hand is sculpted so that it can hold another figure by the arm or leg, which is pretty cool. If Hasbro gets around to doing Sandman in the 6-inch line, I’d like some swappable parts for these, but in the 3 3/4-inch line, that’s expecting rather a lot.

The variant Sandman is the same sculpt with an all sandy paint job. I’m not usually big on the repaint variants in the line, but here I think it works beautifully. I also really dig the white pupil-less paint for the eyes. If I were only going to go for one of these, I’ll confess I’d be torn on which one to choose.

Since both figures use the same older body, the articulation isn’t quite up to what I’ve come to expect from the recent releases in the line. That’s not to say it’s bad. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and ankles, and double hinged at the knees. There’s a ball joint in the torso and another in the neck. I guess the thing I miss the most are swivel cuts in the thighs. Overall, these guys are pretty fun in hand, but they’re a little floppy and getting them to pose well on their own is damn frustrating. If you’re just looking for figures to stand on the shelf, maybe there is something to be said for the retro 5-POA schlock. Moving on to Black Cat…

Felicia Hardy features her iconic black body suit with sculpted white tufts of fur on the legs and arms, as well as around her plunging neckline. You don’t get the white paint for the boots or gloves, so it’s a little different than the look we got on her recent 6-inch figure. The headsculpt is a solid effort with a long white hair and her mask both sculpted and painted on the face. Extra details include the large hoop pull on her front zipper and a choker collar. There’s nothing terribly flashy in the paint or sculpt here, but Black Cat gets the job done. Still, it would have been nice if they ponied up for a tiny whip.

Like Sandman, Black Cat is built on one of the older style female bucks and that means articulation is more limited than what I would have liked to have seen in an acrobatic character like Black Cat. There are rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and ankles, ball joints in the hips, double hinges in the knees, and a ball joint in the neck. The lack of swivels in the wrists and thighs, as well as torso articulation of any kind is particularly disappointing, but there’s still some fun that can be had here.

Stumbling upon this trio of figures was a pleasant surprise for me, particularly because the pegs are usually full of much older waves. Add to that the fact that these were on sale for about $7.88 (in addition to a few others that I picked up) and it was like old times again. I almost forgot what it was like to come home from the store with a bag full of 3 3/4-inch figures of classic characters, rip them open, and have some fun. No, none of these are particularly amazing, but they’re solid, fun figures and they help fill out my 3 3/4-inch Spider-Man shelf.

Mar 10 2016

Transformers Alternators: Smokescreen by Hasbro

It’s the year 2004. The Energon line is in full swing and Hasbro and Takara unleashed one of the sexiest Transformers figures ever seen up to that point by eager collectors. The line was called Alternators in the US and Binaltech in Japan and it was comprised of super accurate recreations of real world licensed cars and the first figure was Smokescreen. When I first got my hands on Smokescreen, I was in awe. I truly thought we had reached the pinnacle of Transformer toy evolution. How could it ever get any better than this? Many Alternators followed and I bought them all. Now, I only still own one. The first one. Smokescreen. What are my impressions more than ten years later? Does the figure hold up? Why did I later sell off all but this one? After finding this figure at the bottom of one of my TF Totes, I’m anxious to explore the answers to those questions. Let’s start with the alt mode…

Smokescreen is a Rally Edition Subaru Impreza and a mighty gorgeous one at that. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the blue and yellow deco, but the shiny blue plastic is nice by itself and it conveys a decent new car finish without having to worry about sloppy paint. The rest of the markings are mostly tampos and there are a ton of them including sponsors from Snap-On Tools to Kenwood. The tires are rubber and even after being in storage for ten years, they show no signs of decay. As a big fan of Rally games on the consoles, this alt mode definitely scratches an itch.

One of the key bragging points of the Alternators line was the idea that you could inspect the car inside and out and have little clue that it’s actually a Transformer. In reality, all you needed to do was look into the rear window or at the undercarriage to see something is up, but this car still does a great job of remaining a robot in disguise. The doors, trunk, and hood all open like they should. The dashboard and interior seats are all fully realized and Smokescreen’s gun doubles as the engine. Hell, turning the steering wheel even turns the front wheels. To this day, I think Smokescreen represents an amazing feat of engineering. Even the modern Masterpiece line can’t make all those boasts, and at roughly the same scale.

Transforming Smokescreen is a tad fiddly, but going from car to robot isn’t too bad. It’s going the other way around that requires a lot of plates to be linked up exactly right to make the car work. In a line that would become notorious (and accurately so) for it’s tortured and complex transformations, Smokescreen here was probably the most reasonable one in the bunch. Certainly so when it came to the payoff in robot mode.

Borrowing from the robot designs of the original G1 Datsuns, Smokescreen strikes a very familiar and conventional figure. The back of the car forms the front of the lower legs and feet, the front wheels land on the backs of the shoulders, the front of the car becomes the chest, and the roof and windshield hang off the back. Yup, while the deco may be new and the model of the car different, this robot mode would be right at home wearing the colors of his G1 namesake. The hyper realistic detail in the car makes for some particularly striking details in the chest and overall the deco and tampos look rather good on the robot mode. The proportions here may appear a little squat and stocky when compared to the sexiness of the Masterpiece Datsuns, but I can’t deny this bot holds up.

One thing I loved about all the Alternators was the universally excellent head sculpts. While they weren’t all specific callbacks to their G1 namesakes, the spirit was certainly there.

Articulation was a pretty big deal with this line as well and Smokescreen has it in spades. The shoulders rotate and feature lateral movement as well. The elbows are double hinged, the wrists swivel, and the knuckles are hinged. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, and there are hinges at the knees and ankles. There are no lateral rockers, but the way the feet transform allow for some movement to help stabilize the figure in different stances. Lastly, the neck is ball jointed and there’s a swivel in the waist. Granted, the clunky feet can be difficult to work with when posing him, but Smokescreen is still a figure that is about as fun to play with as he is to look at.

As mentioned earlier, Smokescreen’s engine can transform into a gun, which is a pretty cool added gimmick in a figure that doesn’t need gimmicks to impress.

Does Alternators Smokescreen hold up? For me the answer is: Absolutely he does. You only need look at this figure and Masterpiece Smokescreen to see some similar ideas in place. Of course, the recent MP version sacrifices some of the real car elements for an all around more polished robot mode, and just one look at the newer figure and it’s clear that that it was a good trade off to make. And while I still get a whole lot of enjoyment out of this figure, I don’t think the same could be said about much more of the line. Even when I started to sell these off six or seven years ago, some of their robot modes were starting to feel dated to me. And I can still remember flinging Grimlock across the room out of sheer frustration while trying to transform him. This line was a great idea and I think if all the figures had been engineered as well as Smokescreen I’d still have a large collection of them. As it stands, about the only one I really regret selling was Hound. Still, it’s hard not to look back and marvel at what amazing this figure is now and how almost miraculous it was aback in 2004.

Mar 3 2016

Transformers Cybertron: Sky Shadow by Hasbro

Yeah, it’s March and I’m still going on with my Cybertron marathon for Transformers Thursdays. At some point this month I’ll have something new to look at… I promise! In the meantime, we’re heading back to 2006 to check out what is oddly one of my favorites of the line… Sky Shadow! It’s worth noting that this mold was first released as the Cybertron version of Jetfire. Up until now, I’ve been featuring repainted releases together, but I sold off my Jetfire long ago, so he won’t make an appearance. And that’s just as well. The mold never worked for me as Jetfire, but I think it’s perfectly suited as a Decepticon. Let’s start with the alt mode…

Yup, Sky Shadow is a giant airplane. I don’t think it’s an exact copy of any real world design, but to me it looks like a military cargo plane. Whatever it is I really dig it. Sky Shadow has a huge wingspan with four engines on the main wings and two more on the rear. He also sports a pair of missile launchers on the outside of the main wings. He looks as ungainly and ungraceful an aircraft as I can imagine, and again it’s just an inspired design for a Decepticon transport.

The deco on this toy really suits it. You get some gold, maroon, and gray all of which looks good on a Decepticon jet. It’s amazing that you can mix this many colors and still get a such a drab and industrial result. It’s also a great example of how much more time and money Hasbro used to spend on paint operations back then. The skin of the craft is also covered with sculpted panel lines, vents, and all sorts of little details, and while there’s no open compartment in there, you can lift up the back of the tail to simulate loading the cargo bay.

The flip up back is actually part of the the CyberKey gimmick and it’s pretty crazy. It causes the entire tail end of the plane to coil up like a scorpion tail, mount on the top and reveal a twin gun accompanied by a cacophony of electronics. Actually, it’s not much of a reveal, since the translucent yellow guns are always sticking out the back. Still, it makes for a damn cool attack mode. The transformation is pretty simple and straightforward and the result is pretty majestic.

This is a powerhouse of a robot with a massive and stocky build. His broad wing shoulders just go to show that Sky Shadow cares nothing for your personal space. The way each set of engine pods become the arms is pretty cool and the deco transfers really well to his robot mode.

Of course, he’s got a whole lot of something going on in the back. The back half of the aircraft makes for a really bulky backpack, so it’s lucky he has those little heel spurs, because even with those massive lower legs, he’d topple over without them. He’s also hollow in the middle of his torso, but hey no bot is perfect. Surprisingly, his CyberKey gimmick isn’t readily accessible in his robot mode. It seems like a no brainer to have those guns angle up over his head, but it’s all tabbed together to make up his torso, so all he can do is shoot straight up. I think there is actually a robot attack mode, but I remember it being balls out crazy and I’ve conveniently forgotten how to do it.

I’m pretty sure this is the exact same head that was used for Jetfire, which I’ll concede is a little disappointing. When you’re ponying up for an Ultra Class repaint that’s meant to be another character the least Hasbro can do is give him a new noggin. I like the head well enough and I think it works as a Decepticon, but it’s also a tad on the small size.

Sky Shadow’s missile launchers come off his wings and serve as hand guns. He looks really good wielding them akimbo, but these babies have super sensitive hair triggers. I’m sure I’ve said that about a lot of Transformers from this era, but in this case it’s ridiculous how many times these fired while I was shooting the photos.

While I do love this guy, he’s not without his share of issues. In fact, if he had an old fashioned bio card it would read “Function: To Stand There and Look Intimidating.” It’s not that he doesn’t have decent articulation, but the wings are unfortunately tied to his shoulder movement, so if you want to pose him his arms in any extreme fashion, it involves changing the look of those sexy up-swept wings. That’s a bummer. Also, there’s got to have been something better they could have done with the ends of the engines that dangle off his elbows. Yes, you can fold them up to get them out of the way, but then they just interfere with his elbows.

Even as I spent this morning boxing up another Ebay Lot of Transformers from this series, Sky Shadow stands as one of the few Cybertron figures on my “Never Sell” list. And wouldn’t you know it, he’s one of the few that actually held on to his value over the years. That’s the story of my life. The ones I want to keep are always the ones that are actually worth selling. I’m no economist, but I suspect that has something to do with supply and demand. Even still, I’m pretty sure he’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but his distinctive design really does something for me. It’s nice to have a Decepticon aircraft that isn’t a sleek combat jet and his robot mode… well, it sure looks awesome standing on the shelf.

Feb 27 2016

Guardians of the Galaxy: Ships and Figures by Hasbro

I can still remember seeing the first images for Hasbro’s Guardians of the Galaxy ships and thinking, “Holy crap, they’re going full Star Wars on this movie and it’s going to be so amazing!” Then the facts came out that the ships we were seeing were scaled for tiny little 2 1/2-inch figures and that threw a bucket of cold water on my celebration. I’m not sure why. To this day one of my favorite of the lesser 80’s toy lines is Kenner’s MASK, and those figures were right about at the 2 1/2″ scale. In the end, it didn’t matter because I had too many other things vying for my wallet to be able to start in on this line and even when it was swept away on clearance, I stayed away. Fast forward to a week or so ago and a friend of mine decided to get rid of his Guardians collection and I took it off his hands for the cost of shipping it to me. Hey, that’s what friends are for!

And behold! I should note that this is not a complete set. It’s actually missing the Sakaaran Necrocraft and one of the figure packs. But it’s still a good chunk of it. It’s rare that I try to tackle most of an entire toy line in one Feature, let alone in bonus Saturday content, but the circumstances here just seemed to warrant it. Frankly, I’ve got too much else to look at without taking up half a dozen regular Feature slots with these toys. But, I’ll confess I had a whole lot of fun opening these up yesterday, putting them together and applying all the stickers. STICKERS! I LOVE ‘EM!!! It was kind of like Christmas in February. Anyeay, there’s a lot here to look at. I’m not going too terribly in depth. Let’s dive right in with the ships. We’ll start small with the Nova Corps Starblaster and work our way up.

It’s almost too weird to wrap my head around the fact that I’m holding a toy of a Nova Corps spaceship. Wow! We comic book nerds live in wondrous times! I really enjoyed the ship designs in Guardians and the Nova Corps patrol ships are a great example of why. The shape and color scheme give it an insectoid vibe, like a wasp or hornet, and this is a pretty cool recreation of the ship we saw on the big screen. The eight wings are all textured and the main body of the ship also has a little bit of sculpted detail, but Hasbro didn’t go particularly wild on it. The ship includes an action feature that deploys all the wings in unison when you fold out any one of them.

With the wings deployed, this is a fairly sizable toy, which leads me to believe they were on to something when they went with the 2 1/2-inch scale. The wing span would have been enormous on a proper 4-inch scaled ship. The wings include peg holes where you can attach a missile launcher and some weird translucent red weapon pieces. I’m not a fan of the extra parts, but at least they are optional and I can leave them in the box.

The Patrol Ship comes with a Nova Corps Officer. I’ll deal with all the figures in a bit more detail at the end. The canopy on the ship opens up and there’s plenty of room to put the figure inside. There’s also a surprising amount of detail sculpted into the cockpit. Moving on to the Warbird…

This is the Ravager ship that Rocket Raccoon was flying toward the end of the flick when defending Xandar against The Dark Aster and it’s another example of what I love about the ship designs from the film. It’s a bit unconventional, but evocative of a flying wing. While the detail was sparing on the Nova Corp ship, Hasbro went to town on this one. The sculpt features all sorts of panel lines and vents and machinery in the engines. It really looks damn good. The grey plastic has a bit of a sheen to it and the black and deep blue makes for a pleasing deco. The rest of the markings on the ship are achieved with stickers.

The action feature on this one is a lot more subtle than the Nova ship. The top wings can be angled ever so slightly in an higher position. It’s really barely even noticeable. Of course, the cockpit also opens up and the included Rocket Raccoon figure can sit inside. Actually, he just kind of lays inside, since he’s a totally static figure. Again, there’s some nice sculpted detail in the cockpit. Yes, you also get a missile launcher and more of the translucent weapon parts to peg in around the ship if you want to. Next up… The Milano!

Star-Lords ship is the biggest one in the line, although it’s obviously scaled quite a bit back from how big it really should be in relation to 2 1/2-inch figures. I’m cool with that, because if Hasbro hadn’t taken creative license with the size, it would have been massive. Like the Warbird, The Milano is loaded with sculpted panel lines and little details along the hull. The gray plastic is the same used on the Warbird and it looks great here, particularly with the blue and yellow deco. The extra color and markings come from the stickers. And yet again, you get a missile launcher and extra translucent weapons to peg on if you want.

Two of the wings are articulated and can fold back or be positioned in line with the other wings. It’s not a big deal. You also get some electronics in the toy. It makes a few different attack sounds and the angled “T” on the nose of the ship lights up and flickers. The canopy opens and the cockpit can fit three figures. Again, it’s definitely scaled back, but I think it’s cool they made extra room for more than just one figure.

Speaking of figures, they mostly come in two-packs, although the one with Rocket is a three-pack. What sucks about these is that Hasbro packed them in a way that if you’re going for a complete set of figures and ships, you can’t avoid getting doubles. Star-Lord comes with The Milano, but he also comes packed with Gamora. You want Groot? You’ve got to buy both Rocket and the Nova Officer, which come with the Warbird and Nova ship. On the brighter side, Drax comes with Korath, so no double dipping there, and while Ronan comes with Star-Lord again, it’s the long jacket version, so at least it’s not the same figure. Each of the figure packs come with one large missile launcher and a sprue of translucent weapons, all of which are goofy over-sized junk. At least the missile launchers, which are way too big for the figures can be mounted on the ships for extra firepower. On second thought, I suppose even the translucent ones can be added to the ships. The figures themselves are pretty rough. Their hands are oddly large to be able to hold the crappy accessories and all of them (except Rocket) have five points of articulation. Let’s run through them real quick…

Star-Lord is ironically one of the worst. His head is hilarious and he won’t stand up unless you lean him forward. Gamora is passable for the scale, I guess. They did actually sort of get a little bit of the likeness in there.

Drax and Korath are fairly decent, I guess. They actually got all of Drax’s tats painted onto him and Korath’s armor looks pretty cool for such a little figure.

Groot looks surprisingly bad, considering he was the biggest figure they had to work with. Rocket is passable, although he’s obviously way out of scale, otherwise he would be too tiny. At least his tail makes it so he can stand.

I’d say the Nova Corp Officers are the best. They’re colorful and the uniforms look pretty good. Also, it’s not so bad having a couple of these, since they can be seen as troop builders.

In the end, I’ll say that I was surprised by how decent the ships are and not at all surprised by how forgettable the figures turned out. The line definitely pulls at some of my nostalgia strings. Maybe a little bit of MASK, but also a little bit of Mattel’s Battlestar Galactica ships from the 70’s that got pulled from the market because of missile choking syndrome. Apart from having Gamora and Drax to sit in my Milano with Star-Lord, I could have easily done without the separate packs of figures. Which makes me think that Hasbro should have just not bothered with the separate packs and just bundled all the figures with the ships. I haven’t decided whether or not I’m going to bother picking up the Necrocraft and the Ronan figure pack. I’m not as fond of the Sakaaran ship designs and I don’t really want to buy another Star-Lord just to get a tiny Ronan. I suppose this line was a valiant effort on Hasbro’s part and it’s just a shame that the market wouldn’t have supported a proper 3 3/4-inch line. A Millennium Falcon-sized Milano with a back that came off and doubled as a playset would have been amazing.

Feb 25 2016

Transformers Cybertron: Optimus Prime by Hasbro

I’ve spent all of February’s Transformers Thursdays meandering around 2005 and 2006 looking at some Cybertron Transformers before kicking them to the curb via Ebay. This involved a lot of digging through totes and matching up missiles and CyberKeys and all sorts of bullshit that I have little patience for. But hey, at least it gives me something to do while listening to Podcasts. Eventually I got to the bottom and found this beauty. The big daddy of the Autobots. Cybertron Optimus Prime. And while there’s no way in hell I’m letting this guy go, I thought I might as well take a look at him because he’s just such a fabulous toy and quite frankly I’m amazed that in six years he hasn’t had a Feature here on FFZ yet. As always, let’s start with his alt mode…

I seem to recall that the official name for this is his Super Truck Mode, but without all the extra parts that makes it “super” he’s really just a flatbed truck, so I pretty much consider this the regular alt mode. Taking a page from 1999’s Robots in Disguise, Prime is a firetruck… I think? He’s mostly red, he has a light bar on top and he has a couple things on his back that look like they could sort of be interpreted as ladders, but are really just giant assault guns. So, maybe it’s supposed to be a firetruck, but in reality it’s a beast of a battle wagon. Oh, and don’t pay any attention to those folded wings on the sides because they’re not wings. Did I call them wings? Well, they’re not.

While there’s admittedly some ugliness here and there, I actually dig this alt mode a hell of a lot. It’s bristling with sculpted detail, from panel lines to texturing, to the tiny faux rivets holding everything together. In addition to the red and blue and gray plastic there are some nice silver paint apps on the sides and some crisp Autobot tampos on the cab.

The cab is just all sorts of badass. The angled front windshield makes him look wonderfully vicious and the front bumper makes for a great battering ram to blow through barricades or any Decepticon fools who happen to stand in his way. If you were to weather the hell out of this thing it would look right at home cruising the badlands in a Mad Max film.

As with all Cybertron toys, Prime comes with a CyberKey, which activates either of two attack modes. Unfortunately they’re pretty lame. For the first one, you plug the key into the back of the longer gun and the front splits open and activates some lights and sound. Meh. The second one is even less impressive as it just deploys two missile launchers off the sides of the smaller gun-ladder thing. I do dig the fact that Prime’s Key is pretty unique. It’s all translucent blue except for the red paint on the Autobot emblem. It also looks a little like The Matrix.

Remember when I said those things weren’t wings. Ha Ha, I fooled you, because they totally are! Yes, Prime also has a second flight alt mode. Yeah, it’s just the truck with wings and a few tweaks to the guns. You know what? I still dig it. Plus, when you fold out the guns in the middle, there’s room for him to carry a smallish Deluxe or Basic figure in its alt mode in there.

To transform Prime into his robot mode you have to pull all the extra bulk off his vehicle mode and set it aside. You’re left with a flat bed, which is fun in itself because you can use it to carry Jetfire around. You can also attach the two extra guns to his back to give him some firepower in this stripped down mode. Transforming Prime is pretty simple, although some may cry foul that his chest in robot mode is faked out and not actually the front of the cab. I’m OK with it because the resulting robot looks really good…

Awww, yeah! That’s good Prime! Yes, he’s a bit stocky (and I’ll show you the fix for that later), but dammit I was absolutely blown away by this toy back in 2005 and I’m still really impressed with him now. He’s a powerful looking robot and this isn’t even his final form! There’s plenty of homages to the Prime we all know and love , not least of which is the overall color scheme and the windows making up the chest. I really dig the placement of the wheels on the figure and those powerful shoulders look great. It’s almost like Hasbro was deliberately trying to apologize for the Energon Prime figure by making this one so awesome.

The head is a bit large, but that’s because he shares it with his powered up robot mode. It’s definitely Prime, but with some new elements to the design. Probably the coolest is the inclusion of a flip up mouth plate that allows you to choose what kind of mug you want your Prime to have.

The articulation here is also surprisingly good for the era. Prime features rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in biceps, hinges in the shoulders, hinged knuckles, universal movement in the hips, swivels in the thighs, and hinges in the knees. The head can rotate. The only downside here is that there’s no waist swivel. All of the joints are incredibly solid and satisfying. Prime is a crazy fun toy that feels great in hand and is lots of fun to play with.

Prime’s gun is about as far from his familiar G1 Buster Rifle as you can get, but I still dig it. It’s got a knuckle guard and it pegs into his hand to help him hold it. It’s also a missile launcher, but I’ll be damned if I can find any of the missiles for this guy. PRIMUS, HOW I HATE THROUGH BAGS OF LOOSE MISSILES!

Last, but not least, Prime’s chest opens up to reveal a removable Matrix of Leadership. It’s just one more thing to make an already amazing figure just a bit better. Oh wait, he also has a Super Powered-Up Mode, which uses all the parts from his trailer. To start that process, you transform the backs of his legs into larger feet. and attach two of the gun pylons on the backs of his legs…

Before moving on any further, I’ll point out that this is actually how I display Prime in his basic robot mode. I think the longer legs and bigger feet give the figure much better proportions. You also get a pair of flip up cannons on his legs and who the hell doesn’t want that? Then again, why stop at leg cannons, when you can have this…

SWEET MOTHER OF PRIMUS! When Cybertron Prime is sick and tired of your shit, he goes straight for the nuclear option by strapping a set of wings onto his back and two giant guns onto his shoulders. This is the Optimus Prime equivalent of Death Blossom. He looks like he could shoot Decepticon space cruisers out of orbit with these babies. I wasn’t a big fan of this mode back in 2005 when I got the figure. Maybe it’s sublety was lost on me. Whatever the case, I must have been crazy, because I’m sure as hell digging it now. It’s destruction taken to the most absurd level possible and that’s a beautiful thing.

One of the clever little things about this assault gear is that it doesn’t just peg into Prime’s back. It actually fits him like a real backpack with hinged shoulder straps that go over his shoulders and peg in under his arms. And yes, you can fold the guns back, but doing so makes it almost impossible for him to stand up.

Cybertron Optimus Prime is an incredible toy, not just for its time, but it still is some 11 years later. One of the great things about packing toys away for a while is that you can fall in love with them all over again when you eventually rediscover them and I’m sure I had a huge smile on my face the whole time I was playing with him. This thing looks great, has a ton of play value, and pays respects to the iconic hero while still bringing some originality to the table. When you consider the leap that this is from Energon’s Optimus Prime (a figure I do not hate, I might add) it just makes this release all the more miraculous. Long after the bulk of my Cybertron collection has been scattered to the wind, this Optimus will still reign supreme on my shelf… or maybe in a tote. Either way, I’m proud to have him.

Feb 24 2016

Star Wars Black “The Force Awakens:” Flametrooper by Hasbro

The First Order. They don’t f’ck around. We learned that pretty early on in The Force Awakens when they murdered and torched an entire village of civilians for harboring a couple of The Resistance. It was an effective scene and a side of Star Wars that we seldom saw in the films. Oh, sorry Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. I guess y’all got torched by Stormtroopers too. I wonder if they were Imperial Flametroopers or if those Sandtroopers just brought along a book of matches. What? Oh yeah, let’s look at the figure…

If you don’t count pauldrons, this is the third flavor of First Order Stormtrooper in the Black Series. Maybe the fourth if you include Mr. Badass Riot Trooper. I’ve already looked at the regular version Stormtrooper and the Snowtrooper Officer, and I’m still waiting on my regular Snowtroopers to arrive. Anyway, the box is the same and the figure comes with his gear all spread out so you can get a good look before you open him up. Well, at least I got a good look at him in the store before I got the package home and it became a cat hair magnet.

The base figure includes an entirely new set of armor, which is more featureless than the ones worn by his non-flame-toting brothers. His armor is slightly bulkier too, probably because it’s padded out by his asbestos underwear. I dig the simpler design, in a way it makes him look even more sinister, although I’m not sure if there’s any logic behind it. He has a different style belt with a hip pouch on one side and a grab bar just above his ass. You’ll also note the lack of hip clip for a pistol or other sidearm. When this guy runs out of flame juice, he’s pretty much done.

The back features a couple of pegs so that the backpack can be fitted or removed quickly and securely. This is as good a time as any to point out that my figure has an unusual amount of mold flashing and ugly seams. I’ve never seen anything quite like it on a 6-inch Black figure before. If I bought this loose on Ebay I might be inclined to start leveling some bootleg accusations against the seller. But nope, it’s official Hasbro alright.

As far as the helmet goes, I’m really torn. The design is somewhat similar to the Snowtrooper, but even more minimalist. Unfortunately, when you have a helmet that is this devoid of detail and relies on just a few features to make a statement, it really needs to be sharp and flawless and that’s far from the case here. The silver paintwork isn’t too bad, but the two black lines that make up the visor and the line running above it, is too sloppy to make the helmet work. I imagine that the effectiveness will vary from figure to figure, but I’d guess that perfect ones are few and far between. It’s a shame because I think Hasbro did a fairly decent job on the other trooper helmets. Also, why does he have such a bad case of giraffe neck? I know in some cases it was to allow room for a pauldron, but I don’t think I’ve seen any mention of a Flametrooper Officer.

The articulation holds no surprises. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, with swivels 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 another in the neck. It’s overall solid articulation and you can easily get him to hold his weapon across his chest with both hands.

If the helmet feels lacking, the flamethrower backpack certainly makes up for it. It’s a very credible looking piece of kit with two tanks and all the appropriate pipes and tubing. I particularly like the “OII” emblem carrying forward on the little block on the upper right tank. The flexible hose comes off the bottom pipe and plugs right into the grip of the thrower. Remember, Resistance, when you see this guy enter the fray, that tank is what you aim for.

All geared up, this guy looks pretty damn imposing. The sculpting on the thrower is exceptionally good and the white paint apps make it really stand out. It’s obviously made of soft plastic, but it isn’t easily deformed or warped. There’s an obvious grip for his left hand, but it fits him more naturally if he’s cradling it a little further up towards the trigger.

While I was particularly hard on the quality of the helmet paint, I still think this is overall a decent figure. Obviously, he’s all about his specialty weapon and that part of the figure is executed with great success. That having been said, while I’ll still happily buy all the First Order Stormies and Snowies that I come across, I think one Flametrooper will be enough for me. That is unless I can find one with much sharper paint on the helmet. I think this is one that would be drastically improved upon by one of the higher end 6-inch scale lines.

Feb 22 2016

Marvel Legends: “Age of Ultron” Hawkeye (AoU 4-pack, Part 4) by Hasbro

And here we go with the last figure in the Marvel Legends Age of Ultron 4-pack. On a positive note, a Marvel Cinematic Universe Hawkeye in Legends scale was high on my want list. On the downside, I regret going from left to right in my coverage of this set because now I have to finish on a down note. AoU Hawkeye… you got some issues.

Yes, this is a repaint and partial re-sculpt of the Walmart Exclusive figure that came out alongside the first Avengers film. The biggest differences are a new head, a more muted shade of red paint on his tunic, and while the space for it is still there, the SHIELD emblem tampo is no longer present. Finally, the shoulder strap running across the chest of the Avengers figure has been removed. Granted, Hawkeye spend part of Age of Ultron wearing something very similar to his first Avenger’s costume, so the reuse here isn’t unwarranted, but it would have been nice to get him in the brand new costume. As it stands, the texture and detail on the costume is pretty solid, although those ball hips are pretty f’ugly.

With that having been said, right off the bat, something feels off about Clint and I’m going to say it’s the proportions. I can’t quite put my finger on it, because if I put him next to Dr. Banner, they’re almost the same height and their legs and torsos are pretty much even. And yet Hawkeye’s legs look really short and his torso looks really long. It seems to be an optical illusion, but every time I look at the figure I can’t un-see it.

The new portrait features Clint without his glasses. I like that. Including the glasses on the old figure seemed like a lazy way out. The new head features a passable likeness, that would probably be a lot better with some decent paint to bring it out. Unfortunately, my Clint’s peepers are a little wonky. Hawkeye? More like Walleye… amiright?

Hawkeye comes with two accessories: His bow and quiver and both are the same pieces that came with the WM Exclusive Avengers figure. Unfortunately, that means the quiver isn’t movie accurate, as he wore a rectangular one in AoU and not this drum-style quiver. Yeah, I get it, Hasbro was able to release this set by cutting some costs. I’m still going to mention it, though. The bow is on par with the last Legends Hawkeye figure that I got and I probably would have been a lot happier with it if I hadn’t just opened DC Icons Green Arrow a couple of weeks ago. That figure featured a real string on the bow and removable arrows in the quiver. After playing around with that ensemble of archery accessories, this one just leaves me flat.

The articulation here looks good on paper, but I do have a few issues with it in practice. Those hips are the terrible rotating hinges that make me work harder to get all the movement out of them. The hinges in the elbows are super mushy and one of the hinges on my figure’s right elbow doesn’t want to sit properly. I have to squeeze the two halves together every time I work the elbow to keep it from wanting to pop out. Otherwise here’s the run down: The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, bicep swivels, and double hinge elbows. The legs have rotating hinges in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double hinge knees, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. There’s a ball joint in the chest and ball joint and hinge in the neck.

I don’t think this is a terrible figure, but it did turn out to be the weakest one in the box for me. Although, granted the fact that I never got the Walmart Exclusive from the first Avengers film makes him a little more welcome. There’s some good stuff going on here, but the proportions still look off to me and a screen accurate quiver would have been nice. At the end of the day, I’m glad to have him to at least round out my Age of Ultron team. And thanks to Toy Fair we know we’re getting an MCU Scarlet Witch. Still no sign of Quicksilver, though. Next week, I’m going to take a break from Legends and we’ll check out the Hot Toys version of Age of Ultron Hawkeye.

Feb 18 2016

Transformers Cybertron: “Jungle Planet” Optimus Prime and Megatron by Hasbro

Yes, folks, this February Transformers Thursdays are all Unicron Trilogy all the time and to be honest, I have yet to venture outside the Cybertron line. Bear with me, there will be new Transformers coming in March, but for now, let’s travel back to 2006… yet again. It’s the 10th Anniversary of Beast Wars and Hasbro had a bizarre little homage for us in the form of two Cybertron Deluxes of Optimus Prime and Megatron in Jungle Planet versions that looked suspiciously like Optimus Primal and Megatron from the great Maximal and Predacon War.

And that’s because these molds were actually part of the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary revival and released in their proper Beast Wars colors in commemorative style window boxes. Why, Hasbro felt the need to repaint them and release them as part of the Cybertron series in the same damn year was always a puzzle to me. But I bought them anyway, mainly because I never found the Beast Wars versions at the TRU’s near me. Let’s start with Megatron and his alt mode…

Megsy is a totally bitchin’ techno T-Rex and I absolutely love this mold! It’s loaded with sculpted panel lines and crazy contours that make it look just a little bit H.R. Giger inspired. There’s also surprisingly little robot kibble to be seen, even if you flip him over and check out his undercarriage.

The deco consists of two green tones with some purple bits showing here and there and some black, brown, gold, and silver paint. Holy shit, Hasbro was not stingy on the paint hits back then! I’ll be honest, I would have preferred the more purple Beast Wars version over this Jungle Planet theme with all the green, but he’s still plenty cool.

Articulation here also makes for a very fun toy in beast mode. There are ball joints in the “hips” and “shoulders” and hinges in the “knees” and “ankles.” You also get a hinged jaw with a sculpted tongue in there. It’s hard to believe they could get this beast mode so right and so many of the Grimlocks that would follow so wrong. It’s also worth noting that while most Cybertron figures had CyberKey gimmicks in both robot and alt modes, this pair only have them in their robot modes. And speaking of robot modes… Megsy’s is gorgeous!

Ooooh, yeah! A big part of transforming Megsy here requires pulling off his tail. Maybe some would consider that a cheat, but if it’s any consolation, the tail becomes a weapon he can hold, and he is technically holding it while in beast mode. So, let’s let him slide on that. Besides, without the tail in his hand, his left arm looks really gimpy. Either way, this I’m totally down for this robot mode. The way the torso flips into place is cool as is the engineering on the left shoulder, which folds down and neatly into place. And that head sculpt… Yessssss!

Of course, he has the same dino-head right hand that Beast Wars Megsy had and as mentioned, the tail becomes a bludgeon he can hold in his left hand and inserting the CyberKey converts it into a missile launcher. This figure is both a great little homage to Beast Wars Megatron and a pretty fine original piece on its own. Unfortunately, this feature is going to start skidding hopelessly out of control as we see how Optimus made out…

Sweet Primus, what happened here? The fact that Optimus’ beast mode sucks so much quite frankly surprises me. I would have guessed the engineering from monkey to robot would have been easier to work with. I don’t hate this, but I don’t love it either… in fact, I don’t even think I like it. Prime’s beast mode seems to cling more to organics with sculpted fur, but there’s still some techno parts showing and the face looks particularly robotic. It’s an unsettling mix that kind of creeps me out.

That face! Oh no. No no no no no no… no! And while the articulation is overall good with ball joints all around, Prime’s monkey mode feels like it’s intended to just stand there on his feet and knuckles. Let’s see if his robot mode can sell me on this figure…

Better! Although, this is one of the most frustrating transformations I’ve dealt with on a Deluxe in a long while. Why is that? The Beast Wars toy wasn’t anywhere near this annoying. Halfway through I just had a pile of limbs, all interconnected on reciprocal hinges and a mess that looks like a gorilla had an accident in a teleporter. Fortunately, the end result is actually pretty good.

This is a lovely little re-imagined Deluxe version of Optimus Primal and finally a fun figure to play with. The sculpted chest with the silver and red paint looks great and the same articulation that felt rather wasted on the gorilla mode makes for a great robot mode. The head sculpt is a home-run too. Oh yeah, Prime comes with his hover board for his gorilla mode to ride on and… OH F’CK, I HAVE TO CHANGE HIM BACK??? God dammit… be right back…

There. You happy? There’s a god damn robot monkey riding a hoverboard… sideways… and it looks like crap. The board has pegs for Prime’s gorilla feet, but he just looks awkward trying to ride it. There’s also a CyberKey gimmick that deploys the side of the board, kind of like an outrigger and reveals the trigger for the hidden missile launcher in the nose.

Obviously I’m mixed on this pair. My love for Megatron needs no qualifications. He’s great in both modes and lots of fun to play with. Hasbro did a splendid job on him. Optimus, on the other hand, has a pretty piss poor beast mode and a needlessly complex transformation, but he has a robot mode that carries the day. It was a neat little experiment to work Beast Wars homages into the Cybertron line for the 10th Anniversary and thanks to the Jungle Planet in the fiction, this one sort of makes sense in the context of the series. It’s likely when the Unicron Trilogy purges of my collection are complete, these figures may survive it.

Feb 15 2016

Marvel Legends: “Age of Ultron” Bruce Banner (AoU 4-pack, Part 3) by Hasbro

It’s week three of my look at the Marvel Legends Age of Ultron boxed set and that means we’re moving into the final half. I know my maths! Continuing onward from left to right in the box, we come to Bruce Banner, a very welcome figure indeed as this is the first time we’re getting the character in the Legends scale. That may not sound to exciting to some, but Mark Ruffalo as Banner was one of the many high points of the Avengers films for me. As far as I’m concerned he deserved a Legends figure as much as any of them.

And yes… it’s a guy in a suit! Banner appears to be built off the same buck Hasbro used for Agent Coulson from the Agents of Shield 3-pack and the recent Chameleon figure. Other than a fresh coat of paint the biggest difference here is the shirt, which is sculpted with an open collar and no necktie. Of course, the shirt does reflect the MCU Banner’s predilection for purple shirts (instead of pants), which is cool because I enjoy that not so subtle comic nod.

There are just a few blemishes worth mentioning on this guy. Firstly, the coat on my figure is scuffed on the front making it look more like worn leather than cloth. On the back there are some extra glossy patches that look like it was touched by greasy fingers. I swear it wasn’t me! I can’t be sure whether that’s on all figures or I just got luck of the draw. Secondly, I’m not a fan of these feet. They look too long from the front and super weird from the back. They also make it hell to get him to stand. To make matters worse, the peg holes in the heels are so shallow, I don’t even know why they bothered.

The portrait here is a decent likeness. It maybe leans more toward charicature than realism, but I’m sure I could identify him if someone handed me the figure. If a skilled person were to have at this head with some paint, it could probably be so much more than it is.

The articulation here is a lot better than one might expect from a guy who spends his days in a lab doing science. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists. You get double hinges in the elbows and knees. There are swivel cuts in the biceps and thighs. The hips are ball jointed and the ankles have hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch hinge in the torso, and both a ball joint and hinge in the neck.
Sadly, Banner doesn’t come with any accessories. Some science stuff would have been cool. Maybe a laptop, a tablet, Loki’s sceptre, or anything. But hey, at least we got the figure.

If today’s feature seems a little abrupt, it’s because I honestly don’t have a lot to say about Dr. Banner here. Don’t take that to mean I don’t dig him, because I most certainly do. And while I’ve liked all three figures from this set that I’ve looked at so far, Banner and Thor each made buying it worthwhile because they’ve filled some painfully vacant holes on my MCU Legends shelves. And Black Widow was no slouch either. So yes, Banner makes this set so far three for three. With only one figure left, is this set going to go four for four? We’ll find out next Monday and see if Hawkeye hits the mark. That’s archery humor.

Feb 11 2016

Transformers Cybertron: Red Alert and Cannonball by Hasbro

As ~~threatened~~ promised, Transformers Thursdays are going to be all about the Unicron Trilogy this February and today I’m going to stick with the Cybertron line. In fact, like last Thursday, I’m going to revisit the years 2005 and 2006 with an original mold and the subsequent repaint. Let’s check out Red Alert and Cannonball.

Red Alert was introduced into the Unicron Trilogy as a Super-Con (think Voyager sized toy with electronics) Emergency Rescue Vehicle in the Armada line. In Cybertron, he’s been reduced to a smaller, Deluxe Class version of his Armada alt mode. Was that before or after he became a huge missile carrier? I honestly can’t remember. For now, he’s basically a white SUV with blue striping, tinted red windows, and some lights on the roof. It’s a nice looking auto mode, but I always found it odd that he didn’t have any markings to denote him as a Rescue Vehicle.

He also has the unfortunate characteristic of having the top of his head exposed in vehicle mode. We’re not talking Energon level of bad here. I’m looking at you Energon Irohinde and Inferno! No, it could pass as part of the light bar if you don’t look too closely, but it’s still a noticeable piece of lazy design.

As a Cybertron figure, Red Alert features a CyberKey gimmick and this one is pretty cool. Insert the CyberKey into the back and the side panels pop open and a pair of guns flip out. When these gimmicks were good, they were really good. But what about the robot mode?

OK, so Red Alert’s transformation features some really interesting and original engineering. The front and back of the vehicle actually connect together to form the front and back halves of his legs. It’s inspired and unexpected. Unfortunately it results in a robot mode with some majorly overdeveloped lower legs. Indeed, Red Alert is just an overall stocky guy, so much so that it works against a lot of his articulation. Particularly with those big knee shields and shoulder armor plates, it’s just hard for this guy to function in regular poses. Otherwise, he actually retains some design elements from his larger Armada robot mode, which is kind of a neat throwback, right down to the gun in place of his left hand. I also like the slot in his chest. Yeah, it’s to tab something in during transformation, but it’s also evocative of the disc shooter that Armada Red Alert had in his chest.

The CyberKey gimmick is still available in the robot mode. You stick the key into his backpack and the guns deploy right above his shoulders. It’s neat, but the guns ride so low on his shoulders, they’re not very noticeable. It also pushes out the sides of the backpack, which gives the shoulder armor even less room to maneuver.

The head sculpt is pretty reminiscent of the Armada toy too. I always thought this guy looked a bit like Robocop… with light up ears. So, yeah Red Alert is kind of goofy, mostly due to his proportions, but I can’t help but have a soft spot for him. He looks like something that might have been released in the waning days of G1. Or to be more specific, I can practically see what the G1 package art of this robot mode would have looked like it and would have fit perfectly. Was he good enough to warrant buying a repaint? Nope. Did I do it anyway? You betcha. Let’s look at Cannonball…

Released the following year, Cannonball is a Decepticon pirate that transforms into a black SUV. Yes, I will allow that to sink in for a moment. Ready? OK, because according to his bio, he leads a crew of pirates who pray on starships and return to Cybertron to spend their loot on “Black Market Energon Stars and Pleasure Programs.” That’s the kid-friendly way of saying hookers and blow. I’m starting to remember why I bought him.

The vehicle mode here is a straight repaint, but oh what an interesting repaint it is. He’s black with silver trim. Oh, and he also has neon green skulls and skeletons painted on his roof and doors WHICH IS TOTALLY METAL! It looks like he once visited the Day of the Dead festival and really liked it so he got all tatted up. The lights and windshields are tinted purple and the top of his head is now as obvious as ever because it’s gold. And of course, the CyberKey gimmick is the same on this figure’s vehicle mode only Cannonball’s guns are gold… because pirates love their bling!

Likewise, the robot mode is a straight repaint. The silver paint picks out the detail a little nicer than Red Alert, although I’m not a fan of this gold plastic. I do, however, enjoy the fact that those bitchin’ skeletons now reside prominently on his shoulder armor. And, nope, you don’t even get a new head. Although I will say the new deco really makes it stand out from Red Alert’s noggin.

I kind of like this pair and I’m not sure exactly why. Sure, it’s partly the clever engineering in the legs, but in the end I think it just comes down to personality. These robots have it in spades. They’re chunky nature makes them not all that fun to play with, but they display nice. When I begin the final culling of the Cybertron tote, it’s possible these guys might survive the purge.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: hasbro