Sep 10 2015

Star Wars Black (The Force Awakens) First Order Stormtrooper by Hasbro

Here we are at the fourth and final day of Force Awakens Week and I’m wrapping up my look at this initial assortment of 6-inch Black with the sexy new Stormtrooper armor of Episode 7. Yes, I am aware that Chewbacca was included in this assortment, but I opted out on him as I already have the previous Black Series release. If anyone out there got him and wants to chime in on whether he’s any different, please be my guest!

Once again, there’s the newly redesigned packaging for the series and I’m still totally digging it. You get a little blurb about the new First Order Stormtroopers on the back of the box, but no answer to the one question I want to know: Can they shoot straight? When the film was first revealed, it never even occurred to me that anyone would try something so bold as to redesign the iconic Stormy armor and yet we soon got a shot of the helmet and it was love at first sight for me.

Probably the most fun thing for me about getting this figure in hand, at least initially, was having the ability to scrutinize the new armor with the old. I was expecting more similarities, and in turn some parts sharing between the figures, but everything here appears to be brand new. And if I were to pick the one thing that impresses me most about this guy it would be the lovely sheen on the armor. The regular 6-inch Black Stormtrooper is an excellent figure, but the armor isn’t shiny enough for me. Put the two figures together and you can see a huge difference and that really drives home the concept of old and new.

Another thing that struck me straightaway is the new armor looks and feels a tad bulkier. There’s more definition between the armor plates and some of the exposed black undersuit, particularly in the inner thighs. Somehow I just think this new guy is a little more convincing as a guy in armor.
Obviously there isn’t a whole lot of paint variety on this figure. What’s here is mostly good. There’s a little slop here and there and some even black lines, but most of that is just enhanced by the camera’s merciless eye and I find it barely noticeable with the figure in hand.

Articulation is a little different than what we saw in the original Stormtrooper. The arms have rotating hinges at the shoulders, and there’s enough clearance in that socket so that the shoulder armor doesn’t become an issue. The bicep swivels are gone, but the elbows are now rotating hinges instead of double hinges. The wrists are also on rotating hinges. The legs include ball jointed hips, swivels in the thighs, and double hinges in the knees. The ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a very generious ball joint in the torso and a ball joint in the neck. I presume the head is removable, but mine is on there pretty good, and I’m not going to force it until I get at least one more.

Weapons include a rifle and a pistol sidearm. The rifle looks like the natural evolution of the E-11 Blaster. It’s somewhat similar, but with a more pronounced scope on top and some white added to the deco. The pistol also sports some white paint and almost looks like an adorable super-deformed AR-15. There’s a tab slot on his right thigh and either weapon can be pegged there when not in use.

I’ll confess that this new Stormtrooper was my most anticipated figure of this assortment and I’m happy to say he didn’t disappoint. The plastic feels great, the joints are all strong and serviceable and he just looks outstanding. There are definitely going to be at least two more of these guys in my future and I’m looking forward to the variant armors like the Flametrooper and Snowtroopers. To be honest, if he wasn’t so hard to find in the wake of Force Friday, I’d probably have a squad of First Order Troopers already.

Naturally, you can expect to see more Force Awakens toys here in the weeks ahead. I’m on board for all the 6-inch Black figures and already have the second wave pre-ordered. I would have picked up some of the 3 3/4″ figures, but they appear to be in short supply, which is rather interesting to me since collectors were so down on the 5POA style. Could it be? Perhaps kids are actually getting those figures? Wouldn’t that be something!

Sep 9 2015

Star Wars Black (The Force Awakens): Kylo Ren by Hasbro

So far this week, I’ve looked at a pair of the good guys from the new Star Wars flick and since Hasbro conveniently split this wave into two heroes and two villains, it’s time to turn to the baddies. Pressing on into day three of Force Awakens Week brings us to the mysterious villain of the new film, Kylo Ren.

There’s the snazzy new Star Wars Black packaging, which I seriously hope is going to be retained for the Classic Star Wars characters whenever Hasbro gets back to doing them. Again, the back panel has a little teaser blurb about Kylo Ren and we’ve had a few other snippets drop into our laps through the Internets. Disney seem to be making a bit deal out of the fact that he’s not a Sith Lord and it sounds to me like he’s going to be more of a hands-on kind of Field Commander of some kind. I like that idea a lot and all I can hope is that he turns out better than Darth Maul… blah!

What’s this? A dark, cloaked and masked villain in a Star Wars movie? Outrageous! I jest, of course, because I’m perfectly fine with this new Star Wars film looking to pop in an obvious Vader substitute. I’ll also say that I really dig the design of this guy’s outfit, even if there isn’t a whole lot that’s terribly original about it. On the surface, you basically just get a wide belt and a lot of flowing black robes. His arms are sculpted to look like they’re wrapped up, or the sleeves are just segmented.

I think this is easily Hasbro’s best attempt thus far at integrating softgoods into this 6-inch scale, although so far there hasn’t been much competition for such accolades. The material they used for Ren’s cloak is fantastic and flows about the figure splendidly. Even the hood looks perfect. I also dig that they layered the cloak with sculpted plastic “cloth” under it as well as the shoulder wrap. The combination gives the figure a lot of interesting depth and allowed for a very specific look to the tattered shoulder piece that probably couldn’t have been achieved as well with actual cloth material. And when I view this guy from the back, I can’t help but hear him hiss, “Bagginssssss!”

Kylo’s mask is nicely sculpted and the silver paint offers just the right little bit of flourish to what is otherwise an almost entirely black figure. It’s worth pointing out that the silver looks like it was just sprayed on and not terribly precisely. I wonder if that mask is ever going to come off in the movie. I’d dig it if he slowly removed it only to find it was Ricardo Montalban. You see, kids, before Cumberbatch there was another… ah, forget it. Never-mind. The mask design is cool enough, but there’s nothing about it that suggests it’s likely to become as iconic as Vader’s.

With a heaping helping of plastic sculpted robes under those cloth robes, one might expect Kylo’s legs to be rendered useless, but I’m happy to report that isn’t the case. Unlike poor Rey, Kylo Ren has full range of motion in all his points of articulation. The arms have rotating hinges at the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in the thighs, and double hinges at the knees. The ankles feature hinges and lateral rockers. It feels like there’s a ball joint buried in the torso and I’m not sure what’s going on in the neck, but he can at least turn his head side to side.

Kylo comes with one accessory, and that’s his controversial cross-hilted light saber. The hilt and blade are two separate pieces, and while I wasn’t expecting it, you can indeed remove the blade to display him with the weapon ignited or switched off. To make that work, Hasbro had to take a little liberty with the blade effect, by connecting the blade to the cross-guard and I have to say, I like the way this looks better than the actual onscreen design. By connecting the cross-guard to the blade, it just looks less gimmicky to me. I don’t see anyway to have him wear the hilt, but who knows? Maybe there’s a reason for that.

Kylo Ren is not only my favorite figure of this assortment so far, but he may be my favorite figure of the 6-inch Black line to date. Besides the cool, totally bad ass, character design, this figure exhibits the nearly flawless blending of plastic and cloth that I was hoping to see more of in these larger scale figures. And the articulation is the kind that makes me not want to stop playing with him. I don’t think the cloth robes could have been as effectively executed on a 3 3/4″ figure and right there this figure passes my litmus test in justifying the existence of this scale. On every count, I consider this one a homerun. Tomorrow, I’ll wrap up this themed week with a look at the First Order Stormtrooper.

Sep 8 2015

Star Wars Black (The Force Awakens): Rey and BB-8 (Jakku) by Hasbro

It’s day two of Force Awakens Week and today I’m checking out the second figure of the 6-inch Black line, or should I say figures, plural, because Rey also comes with that damn volleyball that everybody seems to be so smitten with, BB-8.

I just talked about the packaging yesterday, so I’m not going to dwell on it, other then say again that I love the changes they’ve made to the deco. The blurb on the back doesn’t give us a lot more insight into who Rey is, although I’m going to assume she bumps into Finn and gets swept up in the adventure.

Rey comes clad in her garb native to the desert planet of Jakku. I like the fact that we’re revisiting a desert world because by now that’s just a big part of Star Wars imagery. I’m also glad it isn’t Tatoooine again, because I think that planet has been overused enough and risks making Star Wars too parochial in its scope. Hasbro went for all plastic here, rather then adding softgoods. While I’ve bemoaned the lack of softgoods robes in the past, I think they made the right choice here and overall I think Rey’s desert wraps looks quite good. The layers are convincing and you get to see a little leg between the bottom of her robes and the her little boots. She’s also sporting a satchel on the side of her belt.

I’m sure I’m not alone when I admit that I happen to think Daisy Ridley is just aggressively cute. She also happens to look especially captivating in some of those stills from the trailer. She’s got an amazing range exhibited by her intense presence in the trailers to seeing her exuberant smile in the behind the scenes clips. Can Hasbro possibly capture all that attractiveness in the portrait of a 6-inch scale figure? No, of course not. It was never going to happen. Now, I will say that I’ve seen some really good examples of this noggin and some bad ones and I probably got a middle of the road example. I’ll also say that this is a figure that looks better in person. The rouge on her cheeks isn’t as apparent and her eyes are better defined. There’s a decent determined expression there, a little bit of likeness and at least the paint on mine is pretty clean and straight. The three ponytails are pretty wild, but I don’t suspect they’ll replace the Leia Buns in the annals of iconic sci-fi hair style. Whatever the case, I wouldn’t call this a great portrait, but I suppose it could have been worse. Just ask Carrie Fischer about that.

Rey’s articulation is decent on paper, but runs into some classic issues vis-a-vis those sculpted robes. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, and all is fine and dandy there. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have rotating hinges in the knees, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. There’s a ball joint at the waist and the neck has both a ball joint and the hinge. You’ve probably guessed the problem here, the hips don’t have a lot of movement and that’s a shame. I can’t quite get her into a running pose, but maybe a trot.

As far as accessories go, Rey comes with a staff thing, which may be a gun or a stun rod or some other spacey thing. Then again, it may just be a pole. There’s some nice detail sculpted in there along with painted wraps and a sling. Oh yeah, there’s one more accessory…

This thing, BB-8! This ridiculous ball of cute has really taken people by storm and if my Twitter feed is any indication, the various plastic versions of this goofball are the better selling pieces of Star Wars tat. I wasn’t a fan when I first saw him, but he’s growing on me and I’m reserving final judgement until I see him in action.

As for his figure, this thing is remarkably well done. All the detail in the body and head is actually sculpted in and the paint, especially on the head, features a great weathered look. The head can turn and it’s posted on a ball joint, so you can shift it any direction. The whole figure is weighted so that if you’re patient you can get it to sit in a number of different… um, poses, by adjusting the head as a counterbalance. I guess the real question is, why did we get him with Rey and not with Poe Dameron?

I expected Rey to be a total dud, but I’m actually fairly pleased with this figure. It’s a bummer about the hip articulation being limited, and there’s plenty of room for improvement in the likeness, but overall she’s still better than I expected. I guess, there’s something to be said for low expectations. I’m hoping we get her in other outfits… assuming she wears others in the film. BB-8, on the other hand is just a little plastic ball of cute. And with the hero portion of this assortment wrapped up, I’ll say that I’m excited to get Poe in hand and I’m still hoping for a geriatric Han Solo. Tomorrow, we turn to The Dark Side and take a look at Kylo Ren!

Sep 7 2015

Star Wars Black (The Force Awakens): Finn (Jakku) by Hasbro

Folks, we’re a little more than three months away from a brand new Star Wars movie and we already have action figures on the shelves! I’m very happy to see that Hasbro is continuing the 6-inch Black Series with characters from The Force Awakens, because it’s really the only Star Wars merch that I’m collecting with any gusto. Today I’m looking at the very first figure in the series and new film protagonist, Finn. But first, let’s check out some brand new package design!

I’ve made no bones about it, I’m not a big fan of the Star Wars Black packaging. It’s serviceable, but really boring. This new stuff, on the other hand, is pretty snazzy. Sure, the box is still mostly black, but adds a red side panel with the figure’s name and number to spice things up a bit. The diagonal cut on the front with the character art is nice and the red background really makes things pop. You also get a good look at the figure inside, and in this case, I’m looking at a gun that is sadly being warped by the way it’s been fitted into the tray.

We get a little blurb about Finn on the back of the box, but not much in the way of reveals. I think it’s safe to assume that he is a First Order Stormtrooper who sees the light and joins the Resistance. Or maybe not. But, if that proves to be true, I think it would be pretty cool. Either way, I’m looking forward to seeing what John Boyega has in store for us.

As the package tells us, this is Finn from the part of the film that will take place on the desert planet of Jakku. He’s wearing a black shirt and trousers, which… maybe could be the undergarment one would wear while wearing Stormtrooper armor? Mmm? Maybe? Wow, it’s going to be fun to re-read these speculative reviews after the movie has come out. Apart from that he’s got a jacket on that at first I thought might look a lot like Luke’s Yavin Celebration jacket, but on closer inspection… nope, not really. I was just reaching on that one. I will, however, note that we’ve already seen images of fellow protagonist and Resistance pilot, Poe Dameron wearing this same style jacket.

The sculpting on the outfit is very nicely done. The shirt is textured and you get plenty of wrinkles and stitching on the pants. The jacket is the usual vest with sculpted sleeves and in this case the illusion works very well. Detail on the jacket is a little soft, but you still get plenty going on there with rumples, pockets, a red shoulder pad, and some sort of badge or insignia bar on the left breast.

The portrait is a fairly good likeness, although a bit soft. I was a little concerned about the pictures, which showed the eyes painted to always be looking up. They are indeed like that, but it doesn’t bother me so much with the figure in hand. Finn has a pretty serious expression, which matches what we’ve seen in the trailer. I think this is going to be a pretty intense character. I’ve seen enough pictures to presume that I will be able to pop off this noggin and pop it onto a First Order Stormtrooper. I guess I’ll know for sure in a few days when I open up the Stormy. Otherwise, you don’t get a whole lot of paint on this figure, rather mostly colored plastic. There’s a light tan spray on his boots and pants cuffs to suggest he’s been tromping around in the sand.

Finn’s articulation is similar to what we’ve been seeing in this line. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. 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 the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. All the joints on this guy feel great and they move like butter right out of the package. They’re also strong enough to hold him in a number of action poses.

Finn comes with one accessory, his gun, and frankly I don’t know what to make of this thing. It’s oversized in a kind of goofy Power of the Force 2 kind of way. The silver cone barrel reminds me a bit of the blasters used by the Rebels in A New Hope, but otherwise it doesn’t strike me as a very Star Wars-y weapon. It’s also almost the exact same color as his coat and I’ll be surprised if the gun is actually in the film and if it turns out to be this color. It feels like that was just the plastic they were already using so they kept it. It has a black paint wash, but still matches his jacket pretty closely. And yes, it did warp a bit in the package giving it a slightly droopy barrel.

For a line that has been all over the place in terms of quality, I have to say that Finn here is one of the better releases. He sports a solid sculpt and great articulation, and apart from some issues with the gun, I’ve got zero complaints. He may not be terribly exciting right now, as he’s just a guy we don’t know wearing a coat, but that’ll all change in three short months. Tomorrow, the speculation continues with a look at Rey and BB-8!

Sep 6 2015

The Force Awakens Week!

The Phantom Menace toy launch, some 15 years ago, just missed my return to toy collecting by about six months, so I didn’t even notice it was a thing. When Attack of the Clones came out all my focus was still on Transformers, that gateway drug that got me into toy collecting again. Revenge of the Sith, however, was the first time I embraced a Star Wars toy launch as a collector, but still not enough to go hit a Midnight Madness sale. But I was still one of those idiots working a check list to make sure I got all those figures.

And that brings me to The Force Awakens, which is hitting at a time while I’m in full on “all my spare monies go to toys” collecting mode. No, I still didn’t venture out to a midnight sale and I didn’t wait in line at 7am that morning. Thanks to the wonders of the InterWebs I was able to get exactly what I wanted without leaving my desk. I did hit a Big Box later on Friday evening and found that they still had a ton of stuff and after chatting up one of the salespeople there, I found that most of what was missing was because they didn’t get it in the first place. There was no line, and the biggest interest anyone showed was a lady buying about $200 worth of merch, allegedly for her grandson. Granted, I live in an area where the demographics are skewed toward a higher age group, so I’m sure that had a lot to do with it.

Anywho, my goal was to pick up the complete set of 6-inch Black figures (I didn’t include Chewie, as the one I already have is good enough for me!) and I was able to get them all from Amazon at regular retail price and they arrived on my door today because Amazon Prime is a wonderful service that includes Sunday Delivery! I’m trying to hold the madness in check, but I’ll likely be picking up some of the 3 3/4″ figures along the way too, so don’t be surprised if I start averaging a Star Wars feature a week.

I’ve got to say my interest in this movie has been slowly coming to a boil, especially over the last few months. I remember well that time before Empire Strikes Back was released and I had a Time magazine that previewed some of the new characters and vehicles and I can recall getting some figures before seeing the movie. It was a great time where my imagination ran wild. Who were these characters? Before Return of the Jedi came out, I conjured up an elaborate backstory for Squid Head when I got his figure only to find out that he was barely in more than a frame of the movie. And I was fine with that, because the character had become special to me. So, yeah, this is an awesome time where I’ve got a handful of figures and can only guess as to what the characters will be like and what role they would play. It’s really bringing me back to my childhood.

So, tomorrow is going to start an impromptu Force Awakens week. I’m going to go through these figures starting tomorrow, and wrap it up on Thursday, which means Transformers Thursday will be bumped to Friday, and then next week I’ll return to business as usual.

Sep 3 2015

Transformers Combiner Wars: Streetwise by Hasbro

It’s Transformers Thursday again, last week was Blades, and today I’m opening up my second figure from the Protectobots Team, Streetwise. I shunned this guy as a kid because there was really only room for one police car in my Autobot ranks and that was Prime’s First Lieutenant, Prowl. Prowl was the shit. He could do no wrong, and he was always by Prime’s side. Who the hell did this poser Streetwise think he was? Well, now I’m older and more laid back and I’m willing to make some room for another Autobot to help Serve and Protect. I was going to make a comment about Streetwise being able to boast being a combiner and holding that over Prowl’s head, but I guess IDW has robbed me of that.

As we’ve seen a bunch of times already, these Combiner Wars Deluxes come packaged in their robot mode and are now being released with free comic books, which is always a good thing, except in this case I’m not too keen on the direction the series has taken, but I’ve yet to sit down and read it all the way through, so I’ll continue to reserve final judgement. The packaging continues to grow on me and in this case the character art for Streetwise is totally bitchin. Let’s kick things off with his alt mode!

Surprise! Streetwise is a white police sports car and he is remolded from the Brake-Neck and Dead End molds. It was a good choice on Hasbro’s part and I’m happy to say they did a lot of reworking to make this car look distinctive. You get a completely re-sculpted front end with vents on the hood and a ramming bar, as well as newly designed headlamps. The fastback includes new scoops and there’s a light bar sculpted onto the roof. Between all these changes and the new blue and white deco, Hasbro was able to create what really does feel like a brand new vehicle to me.

As always, you can weaponize the vehicle mode by pegging his weapon into the roof or the sides. This gimmick is usually hit or miss with me and in this case as much as I love Streetwise’s weapon, it just looks silly when plugged into the car.

While the car may look sufficiently unique, the transformation should feel readily familiar to anyone who’s had a go playing around with Dead End or Brake-Neck. All the engineering is the same and while the end result is a pretty familiar looking robot, Hasbro has tweaked things here just enough to make him work for me as a distinct and different character. Streetwise still has the chestplate that partially covers his combiner port, but this one is brand new. The other big change is in the lower legs. Everything else is borrowed directly from the Stunticon twins, but the red, white, and black color scheme certainly helps to further set him apart.

From the back, Streetwise wears his hood as a backpack just like the other guys, but again the new sculpting gives a little variety there and again down on his lower legs. I think the ramming bar at the top looks pretty sweet.

Obviously, Streetwise gets a brand new head sculpt too, and I really like what we got here. The silver paint on the face is excellent, although there’s a little spot they missed in the middle of my figure’s blue visor. It’s not a big deal, as you really need to get in close to notice it. Streetwise is sporting some major lips, which seemed to be a thing at this juncture of the Sunbow cartoon. I think the robo-lips all started with the Aerialbots.

Streetwise’s weapon is a freaking awesome triple-barreled-shotgun-looking thing. Last week I said Blade’s rifle was one of my favorites so far in this series, but I think Streetwise’s boomstick just won the day. It’s ironic to me that Hasbro is giving all the really cool firepower to the Protectobots.

In the past, I haven’t been big on giving the combiner pieces to the robots as weapons, but in this case I kind of dig Streetwise wielding this stubby twin-mini-gun, allowing this guy to Serve and Protect with Extreme Prejudice.

I was mighty iffy on whether or not Hasbro was going to be able to win me over with all of these remolds and repaints, but so far the Protectobots are two for two. Yeah, Blades was actually my first hands on experience with that mold, having skipped Alpha Bravo, but in this case Streetwise holds his own, even with two other versions of this toy on my shelf. I’ll admit that the Aerialbots are going to be hard to beat as a whole, but the Protectobots are making a damn strong early showing and I’m looking forward to see how they hold up as I continue to assemble this team.

Aug 31 2015

Marvel Legends (Hobgoblin Wave): Daredevil by Hasbro

It finally happened. I walked into an actual brick-and-mortar store and was able to buy an entire wave of Legends figures in one fell swoop. Sure, it’s just the Hobgoblin wave and not Hulkbuster or Rhino, but I’ll take what I can get, even if it is a couple of waves old by now. I mean, this sort of thing just never happens for me because the distribution here is so terrible. And since I recently finished re-watching the spectacular Netflix Daredevil series (with my parents, who loved it!) I thought I’d start out with the devil himself.

It’s getting harder and harder to say anything new about this packaging. It still looks great. It’s nice and efficient. It displays the figure well along with the accessories and BAF parts. That’s it. Now I’m a gonna tear the crap out of it.

After the less than stellar results I had with Giant Man, I was a little worried about how Daredevil was going to turn out, after all, they’re both figures with red costumes and very little fresh sculpting. What if this was another example of shitty red plastic and mis-matched paint? Well, I’m happy to say that this guy turned out absolutely fantastic. The plastic feels great, the coloring is superb, and the jointing is fabulous. Again, there’s not much in the way of unique sculpting here, as Daredevil mostly gets by with his costume painted onto the buck. I can’t place the buck, but it’s got some very well defined muscle sculpting and the dark crimson with the black wash really hits the spot. Throw in the brighter red used for the gloves, boots, belt, holster, and that super crisp “DD” symbol, and you’ve got a figure that just pops beautifully.

The portrait is a solid effort with well defined facial features. I wouldn’t say it’s one of the best we’ve seen in the line, but there’s really nothing wrong with it either. The paint is pretty clean and I do love that they painted in the eyes the lighter red.

Besides the head sculpt, the only really fresh sculpting here is the holster for his batons. It’s sculpted from a separate piece of plastic and slides up onto his thigh. It is a tad big and ungainly, but I’m glad they included it. And hey, if I decide I don’t like it, I can just slide it off.

The articulation here gives me everything I’ve come to expect from the Legends line. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, have hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles, and swivels in the thighs. The torso can swivel at the waist, has an ab crunch hinge and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. The balance on this figure is poetic and the joints aren’t gummy or soft. He’s just loads of fun to play with.

Obviously, Daredevil’s accessories consist of his trusty batons. We’ve seen these before, most recently with Legends Hellcat, and these are easily my only gripe about the figure. I don’t care for them being molded in white, and the plastic used here is crazy soft and bendy. You can still connect them together via the peg and socket. I wish Hasbro had invested a little more care into the weapons. I may actually be taking Hellcat’s away from her and giving them to Matt here.

Baton quibbles notwithstanding, I couldn’t be happier with the way this figure turned out. The colors are fantastic and I found him really hard to put down once I had him open and on my desk. In fact, he’s still standing there right next to my monitor, begging me to pick him up and turn my desk into the back alley’s of Hell’s Kitchen. The only question I have is whether or not Hasbro will do any action figure tie-ins to the Netflix Series. Seeing as how they’re willing to work the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the mix, I think it would be a real missed opportunity to not see a couple versions of Matt Murdock from the show hit the pegs.

Aug 28 2015

Transformers Combiner Wars: Blades by Hasbro

It’s Transformers Thursday on a Friday, folks, because I spent a little too much time at The Pub yesterday to work on any content. Fortunately, I’m doing my drinking at home today so we’re all good and I’m even going to bump my planned Feature for today to tomorrow so I don’t miss anything. Today I’m embarking on my look at The Protectobots. I was originally going to hold off and get these all in Takara’s Giftset when it comes out later this year, but then I saw a couple of them at the store and I lost my Saving Throw for Willpower. I’m kicking things off with Blades because unlike a lot of Transformers collectors, this is my first time with this mold on account of me skipping Alpha Bravo.

Hasbro is winning me over with this packaging, not so much because of the design, but because they’ve started packing comic books in with the Deluxes again. YAY! I will confess I haven’t had time to read this one and the Combiner Wars stuff hasn’t been my favorite chapter in the ongoing Transformers story, but hey… Free Comic!!! On the downside, the blurb on the back suggests that Blades is some kind of bloodthirsty animal and engages in “chopper kung fu.” Oh, no… Hasbro. No no no no no no no no. Nope. Please, don’t ever say that again. It’s stupid. Blades comes packaged in his robot form, but we’re going to start off with his alt mode.

Yes, it is indeed a helicopter and a pretty solid one at that. I have what could be possibly called a helicopter fetish in that I have a lot of books about them, I was raised on episodes of Airwolf, and I even did a whole week dedicated to Transformers helicopters here on FFZ, many years ago. So, I don’t want anyone to think that I’m anti-helicopter because I didn’t pick up Alpha Bravo. I just didn’t want a helicopter in with my Aerialbots. I was more than happy, however, to pick up the mold as Blades and I like this chopper a lot. The red and white deco is really attractive and is held dutifully in check by the grey parts. Blades also has a really cool “Autobot Coastal Patrol” emblem on his tail stabilizers and he’s got RESCUE written all over him, which helps calm the panicking disaster victims who see a helicopter coming at them loaded with missiles. “Attention Puny Humans. I come to help! These are Helping Missiles.”

I dig that the hand/foot part can be used as a stand and it even sort of works as extra guns if you don’t mind a lot of junk hanging off the bottom. And just in case a six-pack of missiles isn’t enough armament for your “rescue” chopper, you can even attach Blades’ weapon to either side. All in all, I really like what we got here, but then generally speaking Transformers choppers have good alt modes and things start to go wrong when you transform them. Remember Blazemaster from a few years back? Holy shit! Let’s hope Blades fares better.

And yes, he absolutely does. If clean looking robots are your thing, then Blades may be one of the best helicopter Transformers we’ve seen in a while. In fact, looking at him from the front, he’s nicely proportioned and relatively devoid of any horrific chopper kibble. Pictures of him show the chopper tail bent to the side behind his back, which actually bothered me, because I like symmetry in my robot designs, so I was happy to see that you can leave it pointing straight back, because that’s what I prefer to do.

The back side is another story. Here’s where all that pesky chopper kibble is hiding, but it still isn’t too bad. In fact, my only complaint would be the rotors. They really needed to clip somewhere. As it is, I can tuck them on the insides of his tail fins, but they don’t stay put and they do tend to shift around a lot. It’s the only really disappointing thing to me about this otherwise solid robot mode.

Of course, Blades still has the ubiquitous combiner port chest, which is something I’m sort of getting used to. He also has a nice Autobot symbol stamped on the right of his chest. The head sculpt is great, although Blades looks a little angry for a rescue chopper. The blue paint on the face looks good as does the darker shade used for his eyes.

I absolutely love how the missiles from his chopper mode wind up on his arms in robot mode. I get the idea that this guy does his protecting by murdering the shit out of anyone trying to hurt people. It’s sort of a preventive measures kind of deal. Maybe not in character, but I’m all about bad-ass Autobots so I can get behind it. His hips are a tad too narrow for my liking, but that’s a minor quibble and with ball joints in the shoulders and hips, rotating hinges in the elbows, and hinges in the knees, he’s got some fun and useful articulation.

What’s that? You want your Protectobot to have more killing power? Well, fear not because Blades also sports a seriously cool looking gun. It’s the same one we saw stuck onto his chopper mode and I totally dig this piece. It’s got a wicked looking muzzle suppressor and sculpted ammo on the sides. Why does a laser gun need ammo? I don’t know, but the concept worked well enough for me in the Fall/War of Cyberton games.

So, yeah, this is a surprisingly good mold and one that I’m happily now able to embrace because it isn’t being forced on me as an Aerialbot. I’m actually impressed that Hasbro’s designers were able to keep the same aesthetic as the other combiner limbs and make it work with a helicopter alt mode. This is simple, but clever engineering and just all around solid design in both robot and alt mode, and that’s pretty much been the case for all the Combiner Wars Deluxe Class figures. I’m off to a great start with the Protectobots and next week I’ll keep the ball rolling with a look at Streetwise!

Aug 24 2015

Marvel Universe Infinite: Shanna The She-Devil by Hasbro

Lest you forgot about it, Hasbro’s Marvel Universe 3 1/4″ Scale line is still a live and kicking. Well, maybe not kicking, more like twitching, but either way it’s still a thing. The character selection has been a little hit and miss and I’ve been passing on more figures than usual because of it, but suffice it to say it is still very much on my radar because I love the line so much. On this Marvel Monday, I’m taking a brief interlude from the Legends figures to check out Shanna the She Devil!

The last time I looked at a Universe figure was way back in January, so here’s a refresher on the packaging… it still sucks! It’s black, bland, and boring. I’ve said it before, but this is everything a comic book package shouldn’t be. I miss the old days before the Infinite reboot when we got personalized cards with great character art. What’s that? Why do I care? I just throw them away. I don’t know, maybe it’s the principal of the thing. Maybe I want to be woo’ed. I want Hasbro to wine and dine me with the packaging before I lay my money down. Anyway, about the only thing this packaging does well is show off the figure. I mean, they didn’t even give her proper title on the insert. Maybe they thought “She-Devil” wouldn’t fly in the toy aisles in this day and age.

Let me start out by saying that I have more than a few issues with this figure, but most of them are based on the choices Hasbro went with rather than the execution. If I take Shanna for what she is, she’s fairly well done, although she feels more like one of the earlier Marvel Universe releases than being from the latest crop. New sculpting on the body includes her top, her boots, and a separate sculpted loin cloth hanging over her painted undies, which even has a working sheath for her knife on the back. Her left hand is sculpted into a fist and her right is sculpted to hold the knife. You get some painted arm bands and the ample amount of skin tone is well done.

I’d say my biggest issue here is with the boots. I can’t remember the last time I saw Shanna not being depicted as barefoot. And since I can’t place these legs on any other figure, I have to imagine they were sculpted for this figure. So, hey… if you’re doing the sculpt anyway, Hasbro, why not give us her most common look and sculpt some bare feet? It’s perplexing. Something else that’s odd… Hasbro seems to go out of their way to sculpt belly buttons through the costumes on many of their female figures. Here’s one that’s actually got a bare midriff and you can barely see it. Weird!

Like the body, the portrait is pretty good at least based on the direction they went with it. Shanna has her blonde hair sculpted down over half her face and this would not have been my first choice. An alternate head? Fine, go for it! But the face sculpt (at least half of it) looks so good, why not just let us see it all? I may try to pop the noggins off one of my Universe Sue Storms and see if that one works better.

Articulation takes a few steps back too. The last female figure I looked at in this line was Valkyrie and she was loaded with articulation. Shanna, not so much. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and elbows, but no swivels in the biceps or wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, and the ankles have hinges and lateral rockers. There’s no articulation in the torso at all and a ball joint in the neck, which is rendered inert by her sculpted hair. For an Olympic-trained athlete, Shanna deserved better.

You get one accessory, and that’s her tiny knife, which fits in the sheath on the back of her belt. Pretty cool, but nothing special.

Make no mistake, this is not in any way a bad figure. The sculpt is solid, the paint is fine, and even while the articulation is dated, it’s still better than most of what we’re seeing on the pegs in this scale these days. Had Hasbro gone a different way with her hair and decided to lose the boots, I would have been a lot happier, but I’m still not sorry I added her to my Universe shelf. And given Hasbro’s predilection for doing the same characters in Universe and Legends scales, I’m hoping that means we might see Shanna appearing in the 6-inch scale in the near future.

Aug 20 2015

Transformers Combiner Wars: Blackjack by Hasbro

After taking a couple of weeks off, Transformers Thursday is back in action and today I’m looking at the last and tiniest of the Stunticons, Blackjack. Yeah, I know, at first Off-Road was the last and then Brake-Neck was the last, well now it’s this little guy. Scale has never mattered much to me when it comes to Transformers, but even I have to balk a bit at the silliness of this one tiny car cruising around with the others. Nonetheless, I had to pick him up because I love Decepticon cars, I love the Legends line, and while this Legends Class car isn’t a necessity for rounding out Menasor, I was curious to see what it would bring to the table.

This isn’t my first time looking at a Combiner Wars Legends figure, so I won’t dwell on the package much. It’s a simple card and bubble affair with the now familiar CW deco, which I will admit is now growing on me. Despite being new, the bubble on mine is clearly attached to the card with cellotape, so I’m not sure what’s going on there. Blackjack comes with a weapon, a character card, a folded instruction sheet, and he’s packaged in his robot mode. Of course, we’re going to start with his alt mode.

BJ’s auto mode is a sexy little black sports car with a little purple trim, gold painted windows and a crisp little Decepticon logo stamped on the hood. The sculpt is simple, but it still manages to offer some nice contours. Alas, it doesn’t roll very well. Either I can’t get it all locked up right or the undercarriage is dragging.

What does work well is the way the weapon attaches to the top to give him a roof mounted cannon. Hmm… that looks familiar. Could it be they’re repainting this guy into Rodimus? Oh, wait… they already did.

Being a Legends Class, there isn’t a whole lot to the transformation, but I’ve got to say I’m quite happy with the robot mode. BJ wears his rear window on his chest, while the rest of the top of the card falls down his back. The way his front wheels wind up pointing backwards on his biceps is both unexpected and pretty cool. You get a little more gold visible in his robot mode, but overall he keeps his black and purple deco, which are always welcome colors for a ‘Con. The head sculpt isn’t terribly detailed, but with a simple visor and mouth plate, it gets the job done.

One of the things I appreciate most about these Legends figures is the use of ball joints for most of the articulation. In this case, BJ’s got them in his shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees and that makes for a remarkably fun figure for someone so tiny. His head will also rotate.

The weapon that makes a roof cannon for his auto mode can be wielded as an axe in his robot mode. Pretty simple, but not bad. If I were to stop right there, I’d say Blackjack is a worthy enough pick up if you’re as into tiny Transformers as I am. Something about these little fellas reminds me of being a kid and throwing Bumblebee or Windcharger into my pocket before getting dragged off to go shopping or something by my parents. Boredom just isn’t an issue when you’re a kid, you have an imagination, and you’ve got a tiny transforming robot in your pocket. But, of course, Blackjack has one more trick up his sleeve, and that’s forming a piece of chest armor to fill that awkard hole in Menasor’s chest. How’s this work?

Sadly, it doesn’t. The idea is that in car mode, Blackjack pegs into those two posts in Menasor’s chest, with the weapon attached to the roof. In theory it looks great and does indeed fill up that chest cavity quite nicely. In practice, he doesn’t fit because the pegs are too thick to peg him on all the way and he just keeps falling off. I had to use a couple of wads of bluetack just to get it to stay on long enough to shoot some pictures. How you can design something to work like this and not even check to see if it will fit is beyond me. It’s also worth mentioning that with Menasor being such a god damned frustrating mess to handle in the first place, the last thing it needed was a chest piece that keeps falling off. By the time I was done shooting just a couple of pictures I wanted to crumple this thing up and throw it against a wall.

And so, Blackjack is a neat little figure on his own and maybe one day I’ll shave those posts down on Menasor to get him to fig properly because that’s the main reason why I bought him. For a figure that was going for scalper prices on a lot of online retailers, the best thing I can say is I waited until I found him at retail and only paid about $11 for him. I can live with that, but as an additional piece for Menasor all he really does is salt the wound.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: hasbro